The Outcast Hokage
by Dorlath
Summary: The Yondaime backed out on his plan to seal the Kyuubi in Naruto. This lead to far more damage being done by the Kyuubi and Minato being forced out of office in disgrace. Now he must raise Naruto alone while despised by most of the village.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Kishimoto Masashi does.

**The Outcast Hokage**

The Yondaime stood staring at the body of his recently deceased wife. How had this happened? People didn't still die in childbirth in this day and age did they? Especially not in the middle of one of the finest hospitals in the world. Wrenching himself away from the sight, he knew he didn't have time to mourn.

The Kyuubi was attacking. Now he needed to grab his newly born son, Naruto, and then ... then what? Could he really seal the beast in his own son, leave him to grow up, not only an orphan, but saddled with the burden of a jinchuriki?

Looking at his son he was in awe of the tiny life. He idly noticed the boy already had a full head of hair the same color as his own. He held Naruto and tried to calm his wailing. The infant had no way of comprehending the tragedy that had already befallen him that day, or the fact that his fate was now in the same hands that held him.

No, he couldn't do it. Maybe if Kushina had survived, he would have trusted her to look out for Naruto. But he just couldn't bring himself to do this to his newly born son right now. There had to be some other way. Decision made he handed the boy to a doctor with orders to take care of him and made his way to confront the demon.

Summoning Gamabunta, they made their way to the battlefield as quickly as they could. He was dismayed to see the current state of the defenders. So many of them had already fallen. He heard a cheer go up, signifying he had been spotted by the remaining ninja. The morale seemed to improve dramatically just from him being present. He hoped he could live up to their expectations.

He knew that without sealing the Kyuubi, there was no way he could defeat the biju, but if he could just lead it away from the village, perhaps he could still save it. Setting his plan in motion he and Gamabunta began to attack the Kyuubi with everything they had.

They managed to put on the quite the light show of fire, lightning, explosions, and general destruction. He was the Hokage after all. Not that it seemed to do much good, as any damage was healed almost instantly. Still he achieved his first goal as the beast turned its focus on him.

Charging him, the demon slashed at the two of them with one of his claws, but both he and Gamabunta were easily able to avoid the attack, separating from each other as they leapt in opposite directions. This wasn't so bad. It seemed maybe Kyuubi was all power and no speed. If that were true, dodging all day would be no trouble for the Yellow Flash.

It didn't take Minato long to realize he was underestimating the Kyuubi. While he was still in mid leap from dodging the first attack he saw one of Kyuubi's tails approaching him at a speed so fast that he had barely registered it before it impacted.

It was said that a swipe of one of Kyuubi's tails could level mountains and Minato was inclined to believe that. He didn't think anything had ever hit him that hard before. The new record wouldn't last long, unfortunately, as the ground decided it wouldn't be outdone. The impact left a very impressive crater.

Minato was one of the strongest ninja in the world. He had trained his body beyond what many would have thought possible. Because of this, he was actually able to remain conscious for a few moments after he landed before blacking out.

******

Minato sighed. It had been a few weeks since the Kyuubi attacked. None of the defenders being able to stop him, he had made his way to the city and almost completely obliterated it. Then, it left to who knows where. Probably because it couldn't find anything left to destroy.

Thankfully most of the villagers had already been evacuated, so civilian casualties had been light. But they'd lost many good ninja, including his last surviving student, Kakashi. He wondered how many of them would have survived if he'd gone through with his original plan. But he knew that line of thought wouldn't be any more productive than the hundreds of other times he'd agonized over it since the fight.

It was hard not to think about it today, though, as it was his last day in office. Somehow, word had gotten out the Minato had a suicide jutsu that could have stopped the Kyuubi. He didn't know how they knew as much as they did, but the general populace was now convinced he'd been too afraid to give up his life and use the technique.

Almost immediately, calls had been made to remove the 'coward' from office. He'd resisted initially, wanting to oversee the rebuilding of Konoha. But eventually it became clear that he was going to be replaced whether he liked it or not. That and the fact that he wasn't sure they were wrong led him to resign. Today the reigns of power were going back to his predecessor, the Sandaime Hokage.

Minato supposed he should look on the bright side. At least he'd be able to spend more time with Naruto. And even better, he was done with the paperwork. He wondered briefly it he should be guilty about being more excited about the paperwork part but then decided he didn't care. Sleepless nights and changing diapers seemed almost a vacation in comparison.

******

**7 years later**

"Happy Birthday, Naruto." his father told him handing him one of his presents. "I think you'll like this one best."

Tearing into the package Naruto excitedly discovered it contained a set of training Kunai. "Wow! Thanks dad." Naruto replied enthusiastically.

"I figured that with you starting the academy next year, you're old enough now to start training." his father said.

"Yeah that's great," Naruto said distractedly, his focus on the rest of his presents, "but what else did you get me?"

His father was right though, the first present was the best. The rest was just clothes and a board game of some type. It didn't matter much though, the first present was cool enough it even made up for the lame clothes. His father hadn't even gotten him that neat orange jumpsuit he'd pointed out in the store. All these clothes had boring colors like blue or black.

Still, he couldn't wait to show off his kunai set to his friends. "Can't I have my party today?" he pleaded with his father, giving the best puppy dog eyes he could.

Usually that worked, but this time his father found the will to resist from somewhere. "I'm sorry, Naruto," he told him, "but we already told your friends your party would be on Saturday. I have things to do today. Speaking of which, I need be going. You can go to one of your friend's houses if you'd like, just leave me a note telling me where you'll be."

And with that his father was out the door. Naruto tried to throw one his new training Kunai at the door his father had just left to show what he thought about that answer. But apparently it was poorly designed or something as it fell well short of its target and skidded across the floor.

"No throwing your Kunai in the house." his Father yelled from the other side of the door to Naruto's chagrin.

No doubt his father was off to drink. He did that way too much and Naruto seemed to recall he always got really wasted on his birthday for some reason.

He knew a lot of people really hated his father and wondered if that was the reason. They always called him a coward though, and that was just silly. His dad was a former Hokage and a war hero. You didn't get to be either of those things if you were a coward.

He might not be the best father in the world, but there was no denying he was a great ninja and Naruto wanted to be just as good of a ninja as he was. Without the drinking though.

Now to go outside and find stuff to throw his kunai at. Maybe he'd be lucky and spot Tora, the stupid cat that belonged to the Fire Daimyo's wife. He'd teach that cat not to scratch someone just for trying to pet it.

******

"Really Minato, a bar fight? Have you sunk so low?" the man asked him. Said man was an Uchiha, who Minato's alcohol addled mind informed him he should know but refused to supply a name for.

"You shoulda heard what they was saying." Minato drawled out in reply. "They deserved more than they gots from me."

"And what horrible thing did they say that incur your righteous judgment?" the Uchiha asked.

Minato paused to consider that. "I don' remember." he finally said. "But I know he shouldn' a said it."

"Well, it looks like you'll be sleeping in an Uchiha cell again tonight. Maybe this time you'll actually learn something from the experience." The man said.

That didn't sound so bad to Minato at this point. He somehow managed to make his way there, albeit with more than a little help from the man beside him and a stop to vomit along the way. Once behind bars in his cell he quickly fell asleep.

******

Minato awoke to the familiar torture that was a hangover. Forcing his eyes open he tried to figure out where he had ended up. It appeared he was in an Uchiha jail cell again. Certainly not his first choice but far from the worst place he'd woken up after a night of drinking.

He supposed he should see about getting out of here. "Guard." he called out after making his way to his feet. "Hey Guard." he called out a little more forcefully. A bit too forcefully he thought as his head protested the action.

Finally processing the state of the room he realized why there was no response. There were two Uchiha guards in the room, but both of them were lying in pools of their own blood.

His training taking over, he was able to ignore the effects from last night and immediately come to full alertness. He began to yell out loudly for anyone who might be in range of his voice.

It wasn't long before a young boy about his son's age entered, apparently drawn by his voice. Sasuke he believed his name was.

"Hey kid," he called out, go get an adult quick. It's important." Rather than leaving the boy was just standing there staring at him for some reason. It appeared he was in shock.

"He killed them. All of them. They're all dead." Sasuke said.

He killed all of them? Minato didn't know who this 'he' was, but it appeared this was bigger than just a couple of guards dying. He needed to get out of this cell and figure out was going on. At that moment, he saw a masked man running through the door weapon kunai held in front of him. It appeared he was aiming to kill the boy standing in front of him.

The cell, however, was never made to hold a ninja of his caliber and hardly slowed him at all as he burst out of his cell and sent the would be attacker into unconsciousness with a single swift blow.

Looking at the man more closely he was wearing some sort of a dark featureless mask that wasn't any type he recognized. Removing it he was shocked to recognize the face underneath. That was a Konoha nin, a member of root if he recalled correctly. This situation just kept getting worse and worse.

"I'm going to take you someplace safe and then I'm going to figure out what's going on." he told Sasuke. The boy was just staring vacantly and didn't seem inclined to say anything else, so he scooped him up and made his way out. Something was rotten here and he wasn't going to rest until he knew what.

******

"I know what happened." Minato told the Sandaime. The two were alone at the moment and Minato was glaring at the man sitting behind his desk.

"I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about." he replied.

"Don't play dumb with me!" Minato yelled slamming his hands down on the desk. "I know you're behind the massacre of the Uchihas. I may have been out of office for a while but I still have my contacts."

The older man sighed. "It was an unfortunate event." he said slowly acting as if the whole thing pained him, but Minato wasn't buying it. "The clan was no longer loyal to Konoha and we had to strike first."

"Don't give me that." Minato growled out. "I read the report. There were grumblings of discontent as to how their clan had been treated that had become a common subject of discussion recently. Maybe in a year it would have turned into something more, but that's all it was at the time."

Minato was glad to see he finally seemed to be getting under the man's skin. "Would you prefer I waited until they'd actually acted?" he retorted. "What if their first move was my assassination? What would I do about it then?"

Minato decided to press forward with his verbal assault while he had the advantage. "And how convenient for you that you had such a loyal dog like Itachi lying around to do the dirty work and take the blame. So very gracious of you how you kill him as soon as he'd finished. And as an extra bonus you try to finish off the one person he'd refused to kill for you."

Minato was almost starting to enjoy how easily he was riling up his predecessor. Or was that successor now?

"It would be unwise to leave survivors who would have a motive for revenge if they ever discovered what happened." the Hokage spat out. "Unlike you I do what needs to be done."

Minato deflated at that. How dare he bring that up? This was different, wasn't it? Minato knew their argument had shifted and he had to try to salvage something from this.

"I won't let you kill Sasuke." he said stubbornly. "If you do I'll expose your part in this to the whole village."

"Very well." the Sandaime said. "I just hope this turns out better for the village than your last act of kindness."

Minato certainly hoped it would too.

******

**AN**

There. First chapter of my second fanfiction. I've got this story planned out for quite a ways, and it should be longer than my last one.

Minato was the star of this chapter, but while he will remain a major character in this story, Naruto will be getting much more time in future chapters.

It's my portrayal of Sarutobi I expect to raise the most eyebrows, however. I don't feel I'm making him too OOC. This was more how I picture his reaction to the events of the Kyuubi's attack. He saw the result of Minato trying to find a better solution than the one he had and ending up with a situation that was worse.

Now he simply doesn't want to make the same mistake as Minato. So he's a little less inclined to let kindness affect his judgment and a little more inclined to listen to Danzo's advice.

This lead to ordering the attack on the Uchiha's earlier than in canon and trying to be a bit more thorough in wiping them out.

I've got a lot planned for this plot, and hopefully have a few surprises in store for the readers. I don't know if my writing skill is up to the level of doing justice to the story I have planned but I'll do my best.

Please review with any advice or criticism you have on that front. Really please do. I like even harsh criticism as it lets me know where I can improve.


	2. Chapter 2

**1 year later**

Naruto raced through his breakfast of cereal as fast as he could, not wanting to wait a moment longer than he had to before leaving for the Academy.

"Slow down Naruto." his father told him. "If you choke on that you'll be spending your first day in the hospital."

"I'll be fine." Naruto replied. "You'll be there after school to pick me up, right?"

"Sure I will." His father said.

"And you'll meet my teacher, right? You're not going to back out are you?" Naruto asked worried his father would find some excuse not to show up like he had some of the times his dad had backed out of meeting people. Usually parents of other kids he knew.

"Stop worrying. I'll be there, and I'll meet your teacher. I promise." he assured Naruto.

Naruto was glad to hear this. He still didn't understand why so many people didn't like his dad, but he was sure it was just a misunderstanding. His father just needed to get out more and let people see what he was really like instead of shutting himself in the house. About the only place he ever went was the bar. He even sent Naruto to do most of the shopping these days.

He wasn't worried though. He'd convince everyone his dad was a good person. Having finished his breakfast, he grabbed his lunch and supplies and raced out the door with a quick goodbye to his dad.

******

This was not at all what Naruto had expected. He'd been one of the first students there. After meeting his teacher, some Chuunin named Iruka, he'd taken an empty seat and waited as other students filed in. He'd soon been joined by his friends, Shikamaru and Chouji.

That's when things had gotten boring. Iruka seemed nice enough, but all he was doing was talking. First it was about rules for the class. Now he had actually started a history lesson. This was a school for ninja right? Shouldn't he be teaching them jutsu or something?

Beside him Chouji was snacking on some chips and Shikamaru was fast asleep. He was tempted to follow his friend's lead and doze off. But he didn't want to miss anything if the lesson turned to something interesting like fighting.

Despite that not happening, he somehow made it through to the lunch break. Waking Shikamaru, they made their way outside. They had barely gone a few feet from the building when Naruto found his way blocked by another new student.

He didn't recognize the black haired boy, but the boy seemed to know Naruto and didn't look happy to see him.

"You're Namikaze Naruto, the coward's son, right?" The boy asked in a tone that made it as clear as his words he wasn't here to make friends.

Naruto ground his teeth but tried to stay calm. He wanted to convince people his father was a great ninja right? Well, here was his first chance.

"Yeah I'm Naruto." he replied. "But who are you to call my father a coward? You don't even know him."

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke." the boy replied. "And while my clan was being murdered your father was cowering in one of our cells too afraid to try to help them."

Restraining himself was going to be more difficult than he'd thought. But Naruto just needed to respond in a calm and rational manner to convince him he didn't see the situation correctly. "That's a lie! You take that back!" he shouted.

"I saw him myself." Sasuke responded. "They should have put him back in a cell and never let him out."

It seemed Sasuke was finding it difficult to see reason. But his next rebuttal would certainly convince the boy. And indeed the rebuttal hit him with the force of fist to face. Not surprising since that's exactly what it had been.

Sasuke was knocked to the ground having been caught off guard by the blow. Naruto decided right then that he had a knack for arguing. Sasuke, however, turned out to be pretty stubborn. He was getting up and seemed prepared to join in on what Naruto considered his 'Aggressive Debating.'

Soon the two of them were rolling on the ground. Point and counterpoint between the two leaving the both of them bruised.

Unfortunately, before he could finish 'convincing' Sasuke, Iruka came and broke up any further discussion.

But Naruto figured he'd made a good start on his goal of improving his dad's image.

******

Minato, meanwhile, was busy pacing around the room. There was no reason to get this nervous. He was simply going to pick up his son from his first day of school and talk to the boy's teacher.

No need to worry that many other parents would be there. And that the parents of Academy students were often ninja themselves. And that ninja and their family members tended to be those that disliked him most strongly.

Who was he kidding? He hadn't been this tense in years. It wouldn't help anything for him to show up a nervous wreck. He'd just have one quick drink. That would calm his nerves. Mind made up he grabbed one from the fridge and quickly downed it before going back to pacing.

Several minutes later he still didn't feel very calm. Looks like this was going to require a second drink. But that was all he wouldn't let himself get carried away.

******

His first day of school was over. It wasn't exactly everything he'd hoped it would be, but maybe it was just off to a slow start. Naruto quickly made his way outside where a number of parents were already waiting. Looking around Naruto attempted to spot his father but didn't see him with the group.

"Heeey, Narutooo. Over here." A voice yelled out from the side. 'Oh No.' Naruto thought to himself a sudden chill going up his spine. He wouldn't have. He couldn't have. Looking over to the voice he saw his father leaning against a tree off to the side.

Seeing Naruto face him he began to make his way towards his son, staggering along and clearly drunk. His antics seemed to be attracting a lot of attention from the other parents some of which he overheard talking about the situation.

"Can you believe the man? It's unbelievable anyone would pull something like this."

"I feel sorry for the poor boy. How they could let him grow up with a father like that. The Hokage should seize custody of the child for his own good."

Face already reddening, Naruto hurried over to his father. "Come on dad. Let's go home." Naruto told him.

"But I thought you wanted me to meet your teacher." his father responded.

"We can do that some other day." Naruto said almost pleading as he hoped his father wouldn't make any more of a scene than he already had. Thankfully the man didn't resist and let Naruto lead him back towards their house.

This was the point, Naruto would later realize, when he had the first speck of doubt concerning his father. When he first considered, for just a moment, the possibility that everyone else was right about his old man.

******

**A couple months later**

Naruto hadn't been having the best time at the Academy. While not all the classes had been as boring as the first, and they did actually do some real training in some of them. It was the other students who were the real problem.

It seemed he spent more lunches than not defending his father's honor. And Iruka-sensei always got mad at him for fighting regardless of what the other kids had said beforehand.

But today, one of them had actually told him why everyone thought his dad was a coward. Now all he had to do was confront his dad and find out what really happened.

Plan in mind he made his way to the Namikaze estate. It was nothing like some of the larger clan's complexes, but the house itself was large by most any standards. It was also surrounded by acres of land that were well maintained. His father may not be popular but they certainly weren't in any financial trouble.

Entering the house, he found his father asleep at the table with a couple of empty sake bottles lying beside him.

It figured he'd find him like this. Walking over he shook his father awake.

"Hey, Naruto." his father said, rousing himself from his stupor. "Back from school already?"

"Yeah," Naruto replied, "and you won't believe what they were trying to say about you. Some jerk said you had a way to stop the Kyuubi, but you didn't use it because you were afraid it would kill you."

His father got a stricken look on his face. Naruto relaxed a bit, assuming from his reaction that he couldn't believe anyone would make such an outrageous claim either. "Yeah, silly isn't it?" he said laughing a bit.

"It's more complicated than that." his father said.

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked. "It's not complicated. Either you could have stopped the Kyuubi or you couldn't have."

"But there were problems with using the jutsu like ..."

"Like you dying?" Naruto yelled interrupting his father.

"Well, yes, but that's not the point." his father said now clearly frustrated.

"The point is that a ninja is supposed to be willing to give his life to protect the village." Naruto said coldly. "And maybe it'd be better for everyone if you'd realized that."

Having said his piece, Naruto ran off to his room ignoring his father calls behind him. It was all so clear to him now. Why had he assumed the whole village was wrong when even his father wouldn't stand up for himself? The man was a coward. And instead of trying to change things he just hid in his alcohol. That made him a coward twice over in Naruto's mind."

Naruto sat on his bed just trying to make sense of his life. This revelation had sent the world as he knew it crashing down around him. What was he going to do now?

******

**2 years later**

The now 10-year-old Naruto sat in class waiting for it to start. As always he was sitting next to his best friends, Chouji and Shikamaru. School had improved for him a lot over the last couple of years. Once he'd stopped defending his father, he'd found most of the other students just let the whole issue drop.

Sure he got the occasional barb, but no worse than the standard insults among children. There were really only two people left who were still annoying about the issue. The first being that teme Sasuke.

If Naruto were really being honest, he didn't even hate the other boy anymore. They'd become something more rivals than enemies, constantly competing to be the best in the class. But it was the hard to be that honest when the jerk was being as rude as he always was. He seemed to make it his personal hobby to rile Naruto up as much as he could.

The second person who wouldn't leave him alone about his father had lost her own dad during the Kyuubi attack. As if thinking of her had summoned her she approached Naruto.

"Well, if it isn't the coward and his friends." Ino declared in that tone of voice of hers that said exactly how far beneath her she considered you.

"I think you're confusing me with my father again." Naruto said in as deadpan a voice as he could manage. "I can see how you'd make that mistake. We do look a lot a like. But you can tell us apart by the fact that he's a couple feet taller than me."

Chouji chuckled at that, but rather than getting frustrated, as he'd hoped, Ino just smiled in a mock attempt at sweetness.

"You know, you're right, Naruto." she said. "I should apologize for assuming you'd be just like your father when we have so much evidence that's not always the case. I mean, just look around you. Shikamaru's dad is a lazy bum and Chouji's is a fat slob."

Before Ino could continue, Chouji leapt from his seat and confronted her. "Did you just call me fat?!" he said threateningly.

Clearly not appreciating the interruption, Ino turned toward him with a wave of anger that dwarfed any the large boy was radiating. "No. I said your father was fat. I _implied_ you were fat. Do you have a problem with that?" she shrieked at him like the harpy Naruto considered her.

"No ma'am." Chouji said, having been cowed by the blonde girl in front of them. He then took his seat again in an attempt to escape her attention.

"Just stop fighting it." Shikamaru said, surprising everyone that he was actually getting involved this time. "If she's determined to believe people are going to end up just like their family members, there's nothing we can do to change her mind. Just tell her she's right and maybe she'll leave us alone."

Ino smirked, obviously enjoying the fact that Naruto's own friend was now stabbing him in the back he should have been covering.

"I just wonder," Shikamaru said lazily, head still resting on his desk, "why Ino is chasing after a boy that must be destined to become a murderous, clan killing, psychopath?"

The look on Ino's face right then was almost as priceless to him as the fact that she was suddenly speechless. She just stood there fuming for a few seconds trying to think of a response. She must have come up short as she turned without saying a word and stomped back to her seat, other students scurrying to get out of her way.

Naruto was laughing wildly at this point. "That was great Shikamaru. I owe you one."

"Troublesome girl." he replied simply. Naruto felt that summed up the situation pretty well.

******

**2 years later**

Naruto was frustrated. His final year of the Academy was about three quarters of the way through and Sasuke was slowly expanding the small lead he had for Rookie of the Year.

Naruto had managed to stay very slightly ahead of him in the practical portion of their grade. This, thankfully, counted more towards the final score. It's just that he couldn't beat Sasuke on the written exams. His grades weren't bad, but Sasuke somehow managed to ace almost all the tests.

There was only so much time in the day. Naruto had tried spending more time studying, and his test grades had gone up. But then with less time training at home, his practical scores had started to fall and Naruto was not about to let Sasuke pass him in actual ninja skills.

But now he had the perfect solution. All he needed to do was steal the answer sheet for the test in advance. Then he'd hardly have to study at all and could devote all his time to training.

And that's what he was doing in Iruka-sensei's office in the middle of the night. He began carefully rifling through drawers looking for the test. It didn't take long before he found it. This was almost too easy. Actually, maybe it was.

He carefully examined the drawer he'd discovered the test in and noticed something odd about it. A false bottom. Clever of Iruka-sensei, but not good enough. He removed the bottom and found another answer sheet beneath it. Taking it out he quickly copied down all the answers before replacing everything in the drawer just as he'd found it.

Now this was how a ninja took a test.

******

It had finally come down to this. The last part of the graduation exam. Naruto's plan had worked like a charm. He now had the highest grade in the class, as long as he did decent on this final practical, had rookie of the year in the bag.

His name finally called, he made his way into the room where Iruka and Mizuki were grading the final.

"Ok, Naruto." Iruka told him. "For this last test, I need you to make a bunshin."

"No problem" Naruto replied confidently. Quickly going through the hand seals, no less than 30 clones suddenly filled the room all of them grinning broadly. Not a flaw on any of them if Naruto did say so himself.

"Congratulations, Naruto." Iruka told him happily. "You pass."

Naruto let out a cheer then grabbed his headband, tied it to his forehead, and made his way back to the classroom. He could hardly hold in his excitement as the last few students finished their tests. Then, Iruka-sensei made his way back into the room.

"Congratulations to everyone on passing." Iruka announced to the room. "From this day forward, you are all ninja of Konoha. Now, I'm sure you're all waiting on this so I will now announce the Rookie of the Year."

Finally, this was where he would put Sasuke in his place once and for all.

"The rookie of the year is ... Uchiha Sasuke." Iruka said to Naruto's shock.

"What?!" Naruto yelled out. "I know for a fact that my grades were higher than Sasuke's"

"That would be true," Iruka responded, "if you hadn't been cheating on your tests for the last couple of months."

"That's a lie." Naruto exclaimed, hoping he sounded convincing. "You have no proof."

"I'm not stupid." Iruka said dryly. "When you suddenly get your first perfect score on a written exam, and then continue a streak of near perfect scores for the rest of the year, I know something is going on. If you were going to cheat you should have been a bit more conservative with your grade."

Naruto would have been perfectly happy to do that, if only he'd thought of his idea sooner. But he'd been loosing to Sasuke in that field for too long. The teme's scores were too high to catch up if he'd tried to play it safe.

It was still unfair though. What was more important? A ninja who knew history or a ninja that could sneak in and steal a document without getting caught?

"Still, you are right that we have no proof." Iruka continued. "And that's the only reason you're not being punished further. Your official class ranking will be second, right behind Sasuke."

Seeing that Naruto was about to argue more Iruka quickly added "And if you argue with me any further I'll see that it drops lower."

Grumbling to himself, Naruto decided to let the matter drop.

"Now everyone show up here tomorrow for team assignments. Until then you're dismissed." Iruka said, concluding his speech.

******

Iruka was currently meeting with the Hokage regarding the team selections the older man had made. Reading them over, he frowned at one point.

"Do you have any problems with this?" the Sandaime asked.

"Well," Iruka said somewhat hesitant to question the Hokage's decision, "most of this is fine. There's just one team I'm a little worried about."

"Go on." the Sandaime encouraged kindly while lighting up his pipe and sticking it in his mouth.

"I'm not sure if you're aware of this," Iruka started, deciding to carefully explain his concern, "but Sasuke and Ino have both been very hard on Naruto in regards to his father. I understand he's already having family issues and I'm unsure it's wise to put them both on a team with him. They may only aggravate the problem."

"I'm actually well aware of that." the Hokage replied. "I'm just not sure you've considered this from all the possible angles. His father has not exactly been the best influence on the boy. I'm sure you're aware of the potential he has, and it'd be a shame to have that corrupted."

Pausing for a moment to puff on his pipe he continued. "It may actually be good for him to to be forced to look critically at his father and what the man has become. Besides, those three are the top ninja in their class. I have high hopes for what the three of them can accomplish together."

Iruka still had his doubts about any plan that would deliberately drive a wedge between a father and son, but swallowed the pangs of guilt he had and kept his misgivings to himself.

******

Naruto was sitting in class for the last time, waiting for his team to be announced. Iruka had already begun announcing the teams and Naruto tried to go over, in his head, who in the class was still left. It'd be great if he could have Shikamaru and Chouji on his team. But he supposed he'd remain friends with them no matter what.

Maybe a chance to get to know some new people might not be bad. Just as long it wasn't a team with Sasuke or Ino.

"Team 7: Namikaze Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke, and Yamanaka Ino."

He heard Ino giving out a cheer, obviously overjoyed at being on the same team as Sasuke.

Iruka ignored the outburst and continued. "Team 8: Hyuuga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba, and Aburame Shino ... Team 10: Nara Shikamaru, Haruno Sakura, and Akamichi Chouji"

Naruto tried to convince himself his life hadn't just been ruined. There had to be positives to this. He'd have plenty of chances to show up Sasuke. And it would drive Ino crazy every time he did. And if it didn't work out, he could stab them both in the back and make a run for it or something.

Who was he kidding? "Just kill me now." Naruto muttered to himself.

"They tend to make a huge fuss when you do something like that." Shikamaru replied. "If you want to meet up someplace out of the way later I may be able to help you."

"I'm sure it won't be so bad." Chouji tried to reassure him. "All three of you are in the top of the class rankings. You might even become a famous team some day."

"Thanks Chouji." Naruto told him, glad he could count on one friend to try to cheer him up, even if the effort was futile. "But I wish I was as lucky as you guys."

Iruka continued on with some sort of speech before releasing them to eat prior to meeting up with their jounin senseis.

Deciding to eat in class, the three of them took out their lunches. Shortly after they'd begun to eat, Naruto noticed the pink haired final member of his friends' team making her way over to them.

Reaching their group, she greeted them. "Hi, Chouji, Shikamaru. Seeing as we're teammates I thought I'd come over and say hi."

"Hi, Sakura." Chouji responded. "Hopefully we can work well together."

"Do you want some chips?" Chouji asked holding the bag he'd been eating from out to her.

Sakura declined as politely as she could. Naruto doubted she realized the importance that gesture held to the boy, who was obviously putting his best effort into making the team work.

Before Shikamaru could decide if being polite was worth the effort of responding, they were interrupted by a person Naruto didn't want to see.

"Hey, forehead girl." Ino said. "Sorry you couldn't get on a team with Sasuke, but it seems fate has decided on who's destined to be with him."

"You're just on his team, Ino-pig, nothing more." Sakura heatedly responded.

"Maybe for now," Ino said smugly, "but I am on his team and will be spending lots of time with him. You, on the other hand, can enjoy being on a team of rejects."

Not willing to listen to Ino insult his friends, Naruto couldn't resist butting in. "At least Sakura will be able to contribute to her team. You're just going to be dead weight."

Sakura smiled at the opening she'd been given. "Wow Ino, not even your own teammates can stand you. Maybe I got the better deal after all. At least my teammates appreciate me. Right?" she asked turning to said teammates.

"Y-Yeah Sakura." Chouji replied nervously. "You're really smart and I'm sure you'll be a great asset."

Shikamaru, meanwhile, was putting up a very good act of being asleep. Only Naruto's longtime friendship with the boy allowed him to discern that he was just faking. Obviously his friend had no intention of getting involved.

"Yeah, you've got a great team." Naruto continued. "And there's nothing great about being on a team with that jerk Sasuke, anyway."

"Shut up, Naruto." Sakura yelled at him suddenly, startling the blond boy. "Sasuke isn't a jerk. If you didn't bother him all the time, I'm sure he'd leave you alone."

"Yeah, you should just accept the fact that he's better than you and stop challenging him all the time." Ino said with Sakura nodding beside the girl.

"In fact, the two you might make a good pair." Ino said suddenly getting a gleam in her eye. "A boy that can't admit that Sasuke is better than him and a girl that thinks Sasuke would consider her and her giant forehead over a beauty like me. A delusional pair that's practically made for each other."

Sakura turned her attention back to Ino at the renewed assault against her; but Naruto beat her to the first response.

"And can you explain to my why any boy would want a girl with the personality of a harpy over someone like Sakura?" Naruto retorted.

"Thank you, Naruto." Sakura said happily. "As you can see, whatever you think of yourself, any guy can realize you're hardly a prize catch. Boys prefer a nice intelligent girl rather than some bimbo who's never once managed to beat me on a written exam."

"Bimbo?!" the blonde girl screeched. "I'll admit that oversized forehead of yours is good for something, but I'm the top ranked kunoichi in this class. A ninja's abilities are more important than some silly written test."

"Yeah." Naruto added. "Is knowing what year Konoha was founded going to help a ninja dodge shuriken? Will being able to quote the shinobi ways help you form hand signs any faster?"

Before Naruto had fully realized who it was he'd just agreed with, Shikamaru finally decided to intervene. If you three are going to argue, can you at least decide who's arguing against whom? Or are you just doing it to make a spectacle of yourselves? He asked.

Seeing all the onlookers they'd attracted, the three participants in the argument all stood silent for a few moments somewhat embarrassed by how they'd just been acting.

Ino recovered first. "I need to speak to you alone, Naruto." she said. Then not even waiting for a response she grabbed his arm and started dragging him off behind her.

******

Having dragged him outside, Ino had found a somewhat secluded spot for whatever it was she wanted to talk about.

"Look, Naruto." she started. "I know neither of us likes each other, but we're stuck together on a team now, and that isn't likely to change anytime soon. I think we need to at least make an effort to tolerate each other."

"Hah," Naruto replied bitterly, "as if you could even go one day without insulting me."

"I can control myself when I need to." Ino said angrily. "I'm not some wild idiot who just acts on instinct like you."

Naruto smirked at her and she reddened suddenly realizing her self declared control hadn't even lasted through her next sentence.

"You're the one who started that." she said trying to defend herself. "Ok, I admit I might not be able to help myself all the time. But I still think we need to at least try to restrain ourselves a little more. Otherwise we may end up killing each other."

Naruto considered this. He observed her closely to try and see if this was some sort of a trick. Not seeing any sign of that he finally relented. "Fine. If you actually try to get along, I'll do what I can too."

Naruto didn't expect a miracle, but maybe he'd actually retain his will to live after all.

******

**AN**

This is not where I'd intended to stop this chapter. But as I wrote it, I just kept thinking of more scenes I wanted to stick in to this section. I knew this chapter would be long, but it became clear that it would probably shoot well past 10,000 words before I'd gotten to the stopping point I'd hoped for. It's still the longest chapter I've done yet, so I don't feel too bad about stopping early.

A lot of background character development in this chapter, but I've got a lot planned for this story and the pace will pick up. I can't promise you it'll be well written, but I can promise a few surprises.

I did receive a question regarding pairings. I'm not certain whether there will be one or not. I'm tentatively going to try one, but this story is about the plot. If I find it just doesn't fit naturally into the plot, or if it just turns out I can't write a pairing I'm going to drop it. Beyond that, I'm not telling.

Still have the story planned out, in detail several chapters beyond this point, so writers block should not be an issue. Expect the next chapter within a week. Possibly sooner.

Next chapter: find out who their jounin sensei will be and begin to see where the plot is going.


	3. Chapter 3

Naruto sat waiting with his team and feeling very uncomfortable. His new truce with Ino seemed to be holding for the moment, but he still didn't enjoy being around her. Then there was Sasuke. The teme had refused to say a word to either of his teammates the entire time they'd been sitting here.

It couldn't have been too long, as only a couple of the teams had been taken out so far, but it felt like hours to Naruto's strained nerves.

Just then, the door opened again and a tall dark-haired man who looked like an older version of Shino walked in. Barely entering the room he called out, "Team 7. Follow me."

He then turned around and left the room again. Naruto quickly got up and hurried after the man. Ino had only been a little slower than him to react and Sasuke was bringing up the rear. They found the man waiting for them just outside the room. But as soon as they reached him he started walking again.

"Where are we going?" Naruto asked curiously.

"To meet with the Hokage." the man replied, still not having introduced himself.

"Why does the Hokage want to meet with us?" Ino wondered aloud.

"He will explain when we get there." their sensei replied unhelpfully. At least Naruto assumed the man was their sensei.

"Are you related to Shino?" Naruto asked, deciding to try to find out a little about the guy.

"He is my son." the man said simply.

"So then, Aburame-san," Sasuke said, finally ending his silence. "you're our new sensei right?"

"In a manner of speaking." the jounin responded, still being annoyingly mysterious in regards to what was going on.

The three of them were unable to get any useful information from the taciturn man on the rest of their trip. They soon found their way to the Hokage's tower and were quickly ushered into the man's office.

The Sandaime was sitting at his desk lazily puffing on his pipe. On seeing them enter he directed them to take a seat.

"I'm sure the three of you are wondering why I've called you here." he said. "So I'll get right to the point. I'm going to train your team personally."

He was going to what? Naruto wondered if he'd misheard but the surprised look on his teammates' faces made it clear they'd heard the same thing. Even the usually composed Sasuke was nothing short of flummoxed.

Clearly amused by their reactions, the Sandaime continued. "Aburame Shibi here will officially be listed as your sensei. He will oversee you on missions or help you train when I'm simply too busy, myself. But plan on spending most of your days for quite some time training with me."

Naruto had wanted really cool teacher, but having the Hokage himself train their team? This was better than he'd hoped for. He couldn't wait to start training.

"Normally there would be one final test administered by your sensei to ensure the team was ready to be genin." the Hokage informed them. "I'm going to wave that part for you as I'll to make certain you're prepared no matter how hard I have to work you."

That was news to Naruto, and he briefly worried about how Shikamaru and Chouji would do with their test, but couldn't imagine them failing when they were working together.

Naruto was practically bursting with excitement. "Thank you so much, Hokage-sama." he said standing up and bowing repeatedly to the man. "You won't regret this. We'll become even more famous than your last team."

The Sandaime chuckled at this. "I would certainly love to see that happen." he replied. "Now I want to see all of you tomorrow morning at 6 for your first day of training. Come prepared to work. I won't make it easy on you."

******

Minato wondered where his son could be. It was already seven o'clock and he hadn't seen any sign of him. He should have been done meeting with his team long ago. He couldn't have failed the final test and gone off moping somewhere could he? No. Minato knew his son was more than skilled enough to pass any test his sensei would throw at him.

He was sure his son was fine. He just wanted him to get home. This was his big chance to start repairing some of the damage done between them. He'd been working hard to get his act together before it was too late. He'd been completely sober for three weeks now for starters. Now he just needed to start spending more time with Naruto.

First he'd take his son out to a big celebration, either tonight or tomorrow depending on when he took his sensei's test. Then he would offer to train his son in some of his best moves. Start of with the rasengan probably. That would certainly get his son excited.

He'll be so sick of D rank missions that actually getting to do some real training would be all the more attractive. Should make for some great bonding time.

So he went back to waiting. Finally, around eight o'clock his son came through the door looking very cheerful.

"Hey, Naruto." he greeted him. "Judging by you expression I think it's pretty clear you passed the final test."

"Oh, we didn't have to take that." Naruto replied. "But Shikamaru and Chouji passed theirs so I was celebrating with them. And wait till you hear this. The Hokage himself is going to be training us. Isn't that awesome?"

The Sandaime would be training them? What was that old man up to? He was troubled by this, but tried not to let it show. "Yeah. That's great." He told Naruto. "But you know what's even better than being trained by a Hokage? Being trained by two. How would you like to learn some of your old man's best moves?"

"About that." Naruto replied. "The Hokage says he's going to be keeping us very busy. I don't know if I'll have any time for other training any time soon. Now, I need to get to bed, I have to be up early tomorrow to start training. Good night dad."

Then his son hurried off to his room. Curse that conniving old man. This wasn't how things were supposed to go. He suddenly felt the old urge for a drink come up but squashed it flat. He wasn't taking the easy way out this time. His first plan may not have worked, but some way or another, he was going to get his son back.

******

Naruto's team had gathered for their first day of training. They were currently at a training ground directly behind the Hokage's Tower. The Hokage had recently come out to greet them and now seemed to be considering how to start.

"All three of you have excellent chakra control for your age." he began. "But if you truly want to be great, that's not nearly good enough. I've got a little exercise that will help with that."

He then held his hand out and formed a small ball of chakra. Faster than Naruto could blink he'd hurled it at Sasuke before rapidly forming and throwing two more. One at him and one at Ino. Naruto put his arms up to block and felt his whole arm go numb as a shock ran up it. That thing had hurt.

Ino and Sasuke had received similar shocks and were now glaring at the old man. "What was that for?" Ino asked. Trying but failing to keep her annoyance out of her voice.

"As you can see," the Sandaime told them, "they're not dangerous, but it's not exactly pleasant to be hit with them. Now all of you, hold out your hand, palm facing me, and focus your chakra into it. Then don't move."

They all did what they were told, and the Sandaime again threw a chakra ball at each of them. This time, however, they simply bounced off harmlessly.

"This is what I'm going to have you practice today." he said.

"We all did it already." Sasuke stated. "What is there really to practice?"

"I won't just be firing them at your hands." the Sandaime said, grinning mischievously. "I'll be using the three of you as target dummies. I don't want any of you to move at all when I fire them at you. Just stand there and try to focus your chakra on whatever area I'm firing at before it hits."

That sounded to Naruto like the recipe for a very painful day. This was one time Naruto regretted being right. It was not at all easy to keep shifting your chakra around so quickly like that.

He'd lost track of the number of shocks he'd gotten long ago, and the Hokage had kept the three of them going until they were so exhausted they could hardly form the chakra to even attempt to block. His only consolation was that his teammates hadn't done any better than he had. Naruto barely had the energy left to drag himself to bed and pass out.

******

The weeks had went by very similar to the first day. They did some other basics, such as taijutsu practice, but the majority of their time was spent on variations of the original day's practice.

They'd done it blindfolded. They'd mixed throwing and blocking chakra balls into taijutsu fights. They'd even spent days playing a sort of a game where they had to protect their goal from the chakra balls while trying to get them into one of the other goals.

Today, however, they were working on one of the more basic exercises. They formed a circle and had to keep rebounding the chakra balls to the next person clockwise in some sort of demented juggling act. The Sandaime, meanwhile, would slowly add more balls to the mix.

Currently there were 3 dozen of them flying around. This tied the highest they'd achieved before. Naruto had been the one to mess up that time, and he was determined not to be the one to botch it this time around.

Ino and Sasuke didn't seem to want to go down either though, and soon they were up to 43 of them. Naruto was sweating with the effort, putting every last ounce of his concentration into this.

Suddenly, Ino was a little too slow and got nailed by one of the spheres in her arm. Her dilemma proved a momentary distraction to Sasuke who messed up on his end just a moment later. Naruto finished knocking away the balls that were still coming his way then lifted his arms in triumph and let out a cheer.

Only to be nailed in the side of the head with one of the little demonic spheres.

"Don't let your guard down." the Hokage admonished him from the direction in which the ball had come. "I didn't say this was over."

"Still you all made good progress today." he said with a definite touch of pride in his voice. "Why don't you all stop for lunch and we'll continue after."

The three of them gathered themselves up, shook off the lingering effects of getting hit, then walked off together deciding to do just that.

"He's a sadistic old geezer." Naruto said bitterly, still angry about that final surprise attack.

"I'll admit," Sasuke spat out, "I'd love nothing more than to shove a few of those stupid chakra balls down his throat."

"Just don't say that where he can hear you." Ino muttered. "It'd probably just give him new ideas."

The team dynamic lately had been much better than Naruto would have expected. He wouldn't call either of his teammates friends, but the old man had worked them so hard, there was hardly any time to so much as think ill of his teammates.

Then, over the weeks, their shared suffering at his hands, had almost formed a bond between them. Each of them knew the other two were the only other ones who could truly understand what they were going through. Who could share in their bitterness towards the methods employed in their training.

So they'd gotten into their little routine of taking their lunch breaks together and spending the time complaining about the injustice of the whole thing. Other topics of discussion included all the ways they'd love to get revenge on the Sandaime.

Still, at least the whole thing had to beat the endless D rank missions the other new genin teams were doing.

Walking past a yakiniku place he had to double back and check something. Yeah, that was Chouji and Shikamaru's team in there. Minus their sensei.

Entering the place he greeted his friends. "Hey guys. What are you doing here? You don't usually eat lunch this early in the day."

He saw Sasuke and Ino enter, having noticed him duck in that way.

"Asuma-sensei ... nominated us ... for the Chuunin Exams." Chouji said. Pausing to take another mouthful of food every few bites.

Finishing off everything in front of him, he continued in a less disgusting manner while waiting for more of his food to cook. "He gave us the day off to decide if we want to take them or not."

"Your team is going to take the exam as rookie genin?!" Naruto asked surprised.

"Yeah," Sakura responded from where she had been sitting. "I heard Team 8 was nominated as well. It looks your team is the only one that wasn't Ino-pig."

Sakura looked smug at this, momentarily, before realizing she had just insulted Sasuke's team as well. Said boy didn't look happy at all with this situation.

"Although you're skilled enough to be in the exam on just your own merits, Sasuke." Sakura said hoping she hadn't just angered her crush. "I'm sure if you just talk to your sensei he'll be happy to let you take it."

"I'm going to do just that." Sasuke fumed before storming out the door, Naruto and Ino following after him. They quickly made their way back to the training grounds where the Hokage was still standing.

"Back already?" he asked.

"Why are the other genin teams nominated for the Chuunin exams and not us?" Sasuke demanded to know.

"Yeah," Ino backed him up. "Aren't we supposed to be the team with the most potential?"

"Don't you think we're ready for the exam?" Naruto added, wanting to put his own voice into the mix.

"Of course I think you're capable of taking the exam." he replied. "You'd even have a pretty good chance of passing."

"Then why don't you let us take it?" Sasuke asked as forcefully as before.

"I don't want you to just pass it." the Sandaime said. "When you take the exam, I want you to excel at it. I want all the other villages to be in awe of your team. To know that Konoha will still be a force to be reckoned with for a long time."

That brought the three of them up short. Naruto thought it would be pretty cool to completely blow away the other teams. Not that they couldn't do that already, but imagine how great they'd be by the next exam.

"If the three of you all work hard," the elderly Hokage added, "I may let you participate in the next one, 6 months from now."

They all considered that silently, and the Sandaime must have taken their lack of any further objections as assent to his plan.

"Now, since you've decided you don't need any lunch, let's get back to training." said the heartless demon disguised as the leader of their village.

******

"Congratulations on making the finals." Naruto told Shikamaru, honestly happy for his friend. "I'm sure you'll have better luck next time Chouji."

The three of them were currently enjoying a meal at a yakiniku restaurant Chouji had insisted on. The preliminary tournament had just ended the day before.

"It's ok." Chouji said. "There were too many people there I wouldn't want to fight anyways. At least I didn't have to worry about Shino killing me when we fought."

"So, who all is in the finals?" Naruto asked.

"For starters," Shikamaru replied. "There's myself, Shino, Rock Lee, and Hyuuga Neji from Konoha. There's also a guy and a girl from Suna and two oto-nin."

"I know who Neji is, but who is Rock Lee?" Naruto asked, curious about there being some Konoha genin he'd never heard of good enough to make the finals of the Chuunin exam.

"He's Neji's teammate." Shikamaru replied. "Some sort of a taijutsu specialist. He beat up a puppet user from Suna pretty badly in the prelims using nothing but taijutsu. And that guy was no joke himself."

"Well, good luck with the finals." Naruto told him. "I'll be there to cheer you on. So if you pull something stupid like forfeiting without a fight I'll make it twice as troublesome for you after. Now I have to get back my training. The old man will only make the training harsher if I'm late."

******

Hayate was breathing heavily. This fight was not looking good. The suna-nin across from him seemed to be toying with him the entire fight. And now, it looked like he was about to get serious. Hayate wished he could see Yugao one last time, at least to say goodbye.

He saw the man charging up some type of jutsu and Hayate assumed this was the end. Suddenly, the man in front of him vanished. Hayate looked around trying to figure out where the attack would come from, but nothing came.

After he'd been standing there for a while, he concluded he should at least start trying to escape. He kept assuming it was just another way to toy with him by giving him false hope. It wasn't until he'd actually made it into to the Hokage's tower that he actually realized he was going to get out of this alive.

******

"Naruto, I've got something to talk to you about." Minato said.

"Sorry, dad." his son replied. "Don't have time. I have to get to training."

"It can wait a few minutes." Minato said. "This won't take long."

"I'm a shinobi of this village, dad." Naruto said coldly. "I have a duty to do my job right. I can't just stand around here talking to you when there's work to do."

That was about as much as Minato could take. Despite his best efforts to try to repair their relationship, his son refused to give him the time of day lately. He'd tried to be patient but there was only so much he could take.

"I am your father, young man, and you will show me a little respect." he said crossly.

"I'll show you respect when you've done something to earn it." Naruto replied just as angrily before storming out the door and leaving.

******

Naruto arrived at the Hokage's tower still in a foul mood. He was the last to arrive and was surprised to see Aburame-sensei standing with his team.

"Now that you're all here," the Hokage said. "instead of training, I'm going to be sending you on a mission today. It's a B rank mission to clear out a group of bandits."

"That sounds great!" Naruto said excitedly, his mood instantly improving.

"Anything has to be better than that training." he heard Sasuke mumble beside him.

"What was that?" the Sandaime asked. "I'm afraid my hearing seems to be going in my old age."

Grabbing the mission details, Naruto began to read it over. "Wait a minute." he said after noticing one detail. "This is pretty far away. I don't know if we'll be able to finish this in time to watch the finals of the exams."

"I'm afraid we can't stop accepting missions just because of the exams." he replied. "Now the mission is B rank because we've heard reports that some members of the group may be missing-nin. They shouldn't be anything you can't handle. Aburame-san will be going with you, but I've asked him not to interfere unless it's necessary. I want to see how you do on your own."

"A few bandits is nothing we can't handle. Right Sasuke-kun?" Ino asked before latching onto Sasuke's arm.

The boy quickly extracted himself from her grip and made some sort of grunt Naruto assumed was agreement with her statement.

"I hope you're well prepared." the Sandaime said, "Because you'll be leaving immediately. Dismissed."

******

Two men stood shrouded in the shadows of a back alley. "We confirmed the identity of the corpse you discovered." the first man said. "It appears you were right."

"Then you'll go through with the plan?" the second man asked.

"Yes. We'll hold up our end of the deal." the first man replied.

Then both of them vanished leaving the alley empty.

******

It had taken them two days of travel, but Naruto's team had reached their destination. They were currently peering at the group of bandits below them. There appeared to be about 50 of them and he counted 5 with the headbands indicating former ninja.

Naruto wouldn't admit it out loud, but actually being here, he was quite nervous. Wasn't this a little intense for their first combat mission? Even just counting ninja they were outnumbered.

Sasuke, however, was signaling for them to move in, and Naruto was not going to stand back cowering while his teammates fought.

The three of them quickly dashed in, throwing shuriken that caught a few of the bandits before they even realized they were being attacked, but in little time they had all grabbed their weapons and the three of them were surrounded being attacked from all sides.

After a few seconds of near panic, Naruto realized he was having no trouble dodging the attacks. Compared to dealing with that stupid chakra ball training this was easy.

Naruto suddenly had an epiphany as to the full purpose of that training. It wasn't just chakra control. He had honed his danger sense far beyond what it had been before. He was able to track every attack and know exactly where they were headed for.

Dodging them almost became a joke, even the couple of them he was fighting who had ninja training were no trouble at all to avoid. He quickly found himself almost dancing between the attacks, and saw that Sasuke and Ino were having just as easy of a fight.

It seemed almost no time at all before the entire force had been subdued. Naruto could hardly believe how easy that had been. They hadn't even had to resort to killing. A couple who were wounded by the initial shuriken assault would need treatment but should pull through.

Now they just needed to round up them all up and return them to the authorities.

"That was awesome!" Ino yelled. "We rock, guys."

"In sixth months, our opponents won't know what hit them." Sasuke stated confidently.

That reminded Naruto that it didn't look like they were going to see this exam's finals. They'd take place tomorrow and it'd take them two days to get back. He hoped Shikamaru did well.

******

The Sandaime sat watching the finals. It had been a pretty good showing, but he found himself too distracted to truly enjoy them.

The first match had been between Hyuuga Neji and Rock Lee. Neji had dominated early on, and even after Lee had removed his weights, Neji's kaiten had proved ample defense against the faster boy.

However, when Lee had opened five of his chakra gates, he had finally been able to overpower the kaiten with a massive kick that sent the Hyuuga flying. Unfortunately it had also shattered Lee's leg in several places.

The damage and pain had slowed down Lee enough that Neji had been able to just avoid the follow-up attack and slam Lee in the chest with a Gentle fist attack that took the young taijutsu specialist out.

The second match had been interesting in a different way. Shikamaru had been against a kunoichi from Suna that used a giant battle fan. He had managed to trick her into being caught in his shadow, then forced her to pull out one of her own kunai and face it towards her neck.

She quickly surrendered the match rather than see if he would go through with the attack.

Sarutobi was feeling about as impatient as that Gaara boy looked. The child seemed almost hungry for a fight probably would have started one if not for the constant effort to calm him by his sensei, Baki.

Turning, he addressed the man beside him dressed in the robes of the Kazekage. "I tire of this charade Orochimaru. Let's get this over with."

"Whatever you say, Sarutobi-sensei." the other man replied.

Then, almost simultaneously, the whole area erupted into chaos. The Sandaime found his own fight with Orochimaru had become surrounded by a number of oto-nin who then erected a barrier of some sort around them. But that suited him just fine. He would take care of his former student himself as he should have all those years ago.

Outside the barrier, he saw that Suna had done as they'd promised and were fighting the the Sound forces. Combine with the might of Konoha, the Sound invasion was quickly being put down.

Smiling he decided to goad Orochimaru. "It seems your little invasion has failed."

His former student simply laughed. "I knew all about the Yondaime and how he uncovered my little plot. While I admit it spoiled some of my fun, the invasion was just a little game to play on the side to act as a diversion."

"Whatever your plan is, you won't live to see it succeed." he declared, before launching another attack.

******

This fight wasn't going well for the Sandaime. Ever since Orochimaru had somehow summoned the Nidaime back from the dead and put him under his control. At least he'd been able to stop him from summoning the Shodaime. Even still, fighting one of his old teachers and Orochimaru at the same time was proving far beyond his abilities.

Even in his prime he doubted he could take both at once. He could only see one solution. The forbidden technique the Yondaime had backed out of using against the Kyuubi. He searched desperately for some other option. He had no real successor yet and was afraid Danzo would seize power given half the chance.

Suddenly, he heard a sound and turned to see Minato blasting through the barrier using some huge rasengan. The barrier quickly closed behind him, but he'd made it through.

"Sorry to keep you waiting." the younger man said. "But I'd thought you could handle yourself a little better until I finished off the minions outside."

"One Hokage or two, it hardly matters to me." Orochimaru said. "If you want to join in I'll be happy to oblige." So said Orochimaru leaped towards Minato in an assault.

The Sandaime attempted to help him and focus their attacks on his treacherous pupil, but every move to get involved was blocked by the Nidaime. Worse, Minato actually seemed to be losing his fight.

"Ku ku ku. I'd thought Sarutobi-sensei was weaker than he'd used to be, but you've really let yourself go." Orochimaru taunted. "You're not half the ninja you were a decade ago."

"It's true I'm a bit out of shape," Minato said, "but let's see how you like this." Taking out his special kunai, he began to toss them rapidly all around Orochimaru. He then began the technique that gave him the name Yellow Flash.

He vanished, flickering into view briefly all around Orochimaru to give a brief slash before vanishing again. This continued for a few seconds before a kick from the white faced man sent him flying in the Sandaime's direction. Worse, Orochimaru didn't have a scratch on him, having blocked or dodged every attack.

"Teleport all you want." Orochimaru said mockingly. "If you're too slow to hit me when you appear it doesn't do you any good."

It didn't seem Minato was a match for Orochimaru. And with the Nidaime keeping him occupied while healing any damage he inflicted to him, the Sandaime realized it was only a matter of time before they lost at this rate.

It was going to come down to that technique after all. Thankfully, he was no longer the only person here who knew it. He wasn't even sure Minato was aware the Sandaime also knew the jutsu. And whether he was or not, it should be easy enough to manipulate him into being the one to cast it.

"If we're going to win this, you can't back out of using that jutsu this time." He told the younger man.

"There has to be some other way." Minato replied.

For some reason, Orochimaru seemed content to let the two of them talk, but he was still watching the snake carefully.

"Are you really going to make the same mistake twice. What would Naruto think if he hears you refused to use the jutsu a second time and Orochimaru won because of it?"

The pained expression on his face made it clear to the aging Hokage that his ploy was working.

"You'll take care of him when I'm gone, won't you?" Minato asked.

"Of course I will." the Sandaime responded, quite honestly. "I'll let him know how bravely you died."

"Thank you." Minato said gratefully, before forming a hand seal and summoning a kage bunshin. Then going through a much longer set of hand seals, he summoned the shinigami.

"Oh, and what jutsu is this?" Orochimaru asked as if just having a friendly conversation.

"You're about to find out." Minato replied. Once again activating hiraishin he and his clone both began teleporting around. At the same time, both charged their target. Orochimaru and the resurrected Nidaime both froze in place as if unable to move.

Orochimaru dropped his sword in surprise and Minato kicked it away. His former student seemed to finally realize the danger he was in.

"What are you doing to me?" he cried out in fear. In desperation, he made a motion with his fingers and his sword started flying towards Minato's back. Without the Nidaime in his way anymore, the Sandaime was able to easily use the transformed Enma to knock it away. With one last cry of anguish, Orochimaru fell limply to the ground.

"Tell Naruto I love him." Minato said before he too crumpled as the life faded from him.

******

Naruto hurried on cheerfully, the gates of Konoha now in site. He couldn't wait to report his first successful mission. As they got closer, Aburame-sensei seemed to become agitated about something.

"It appears there was a battle of some sort here." he informed his students. "Let us make haste."

They did so and sped towards the gates, calming down somewhat when they saw a couple of chuunin calmly guarding it. If the battle was still going on they wouldn't just be sitting there.

"What happened here?" Naruto asked worriedly.

"Otogakure attempted to invade us during the finals of the chuunin exam." One of the chuunin said. "The plot was discovered beforehand, and with the help of Suna we were able to put them down with minimal losses."

Both the chuunin seemed to want to avoid making eye contact with him and he wasn't liking it at all. "Why won't you look at me?" he demanded of them.

"It's just," one of them started, "Orochimaru was behind the attack and your father ... he .. he died fighting him."

Naruto felt his heart skip a beat. "You're lying!" he yelled at the man.

"I heard he died very bravely." the other one said lamely.

He rounded on that chuunin and grabbed him by his shirt. "You think a stupid lie like that will make me happy?!" he screamed.

"My dad put you up to this, didn't he? Didn't he?!" he began shaking the man when he wouldn't answer after the second time he was asked until his teammates restrained him.

"I don't care if he's a coward!" Naruto yelled. "He just can't be dead."

"He can't be ..." he repeated his words trailing off at the end.

******

The funeral took place the next day. His father hadn't been the only Konoha citizen who had died. But with casualties as light as they were, his death was the focus of this event. The Hokage was currently wrapping up the eulogy.

"So in conclusion, let's not remember him as a man who had one moment of weakness, but as a hero. One who overcame his weaknesses and sacrificed himself for the village in one of our greatest moments of need."

It annoyed Naruto how easy the villagers were doing just that. The same people who'd looked scornfully at him last week were calling him a hero today. It's not that he didn't want his father thought of as a hero, it just seemed hollow when the change came so quickly. As if they were only saying it to be polite rather than really meaning it.

But Naruto had no room to talk. He'd treated the former Hokage just as badly as they had and the man had been Naruto's own father.

Naruto sat staring at the gravestone long after everyone else had left. Even after the sun the set he kept staring at it. He might have stayed there all night if someone hadn't come up behind him. Turning he saw Ino standing there, watching him.

She didn't seem eager to say anything so Naruto decided to talk first. "It's my fault you know."

"What is?" she asked him.

"Hokage-sama explained everything to me." he continued. "My dad didn't have a way to kill the Kyuubi. What he could have done was seal it into a newborn baby. And I was the only baby born that day."

He saw Ino's eyes widen in realization.

"Why didn't he tell me?" Naruto said dejectedly. "He let me and the whole village call him a coward for years when really it was all my fault."

Suddenly Ino's hand was moving and his head was rocked to the side with the force of her slap. "He probably didn't tell you, because he knew you'd be an idiot and go blaming yourself for something you had no control over." she told him.

Naruto appreciated her effort but wasn't cheered in the slightest. "You know what the last thing I told him was?" he asked. Not even waiting for a reply he told her. "That I would respect him when he did something worthy of my respect. Well he did just that. Exactly what I told him to do."

Ino sat down next to him. "I never really knew your father." she said, "and mine died when I was too young to remember. But I still know that no father would want their child to agonize over a few harsh words said in a moment of anger."

Pausing briefly she continued. "He did what he felt was the right thing to do, and he would have done it whether you'd said that or not. Because he was protecting not just the village, but you too. He knew that Orochimaru had to be stopped or no one was safe in Konoha."

Naruto never would have imagined it would be Ino comforting him and telling him over his father's death but he was grateful for it nonetheless. He wanted to thank her, but he just couldn't find his voice at the moment, so he just sat there next to her for a while a cried more than he ever had in his life.

******

Naruto had finally calmed down enough to try to make his way home. However, as he was passing through a small alley, a man appeared in front of him. He didn't recognize the black haired man, whose only distinctive feature seemed to be how extraordinarily average he was.

But the man leaned forward to talk to Naruto in a hushed voice. "I was given instructions to see that you received this in the event that your father passed away. I was told to warn you to read this immediately and be very careful who you let know you received it." The man then vanished as quickly as he'd appeared.

Very curious, Naruto opened the sealed letter but found it too dark to read. With a flash of insight, he formed one the chakra spheres he'd been training with, glad he'd finally found a use for it as it provided just enough light to read with.

Reading the letter in shock, he went back and read it a second time to make sure he hadn't misunderstood. If this was true, the Sandaime had actually been the one behind the death of Sasuke's clan. He pondered briefly what he should do with this knowledge before deciding that Sasuke deserved to know.

Changing course he made his way quickly to the Uchiha compound. He saw Sasuke was still awake as well and was standing on the porch in front of his house.

Sasuke seemed surprised to see him and struggled with how to greet his teammate. "Are you alright?" he finally asked.

"I've been better." Naruto said, "But that's not why I'm here. Some guy gave me a note that he was supposed to deliver to me if my dad died. I need you to read it."

Taking the letter from Naruto he did just that. Soon his fist was clenching the letter in an iron grip. "I'll kill him." Sasuke said simply. "It all makes sense now. There's no way nii-san would do something like that on his own. It was the Sandaime's doing all along."

"And for what?" he all but yelled. "Because there was talk about being unhappy with things? He killed them because they complained?"

Sasuke took a few deep breaths, then continued somewhat more calmly. "This letter says where he hid the evidence. I'm going to find it."

Following behind his teammate, the two of them came to the building mentioned in the letter. Removing one of the bricks, as directed, they found small hidden area behind it, not much larger than the brick they'd removed. But all that was in there was a single note. Grabbing it Sasuke read it quickly before handing it to Naruto in disgust.

Naruto read the note himself.

Naruto,

If you're reading this it means that somehow one of the letters I  
directed to be delivered upon my death made its way to you. I  
tried to stop all of them from being sent, but by design that's hard  
to do. I've destroyed all evidence I have of the event mentioned in the  
letter. I don't want you to pursue the matter any further. It's too  
dangerous and won't do any good.

"This won't stop me." Sasuke declared. "Your father found the evidence once. I'll simply find it again. I don't care how long it takes, I will bring him down."

"I'll help you." Naruto told him surprising Sasuke. "That's not something a Hokage should do. He doesn't deserve the title."

"You boys are planning a coup and you weren't even going to tell me?" a voice asked from behind them. Turning around he saw Ino standing there.

"What are you doing here?" Naruto asked not expecting to see her again tonight.

"I sort of followed you to make sure you didn't try anything stupid after you left." she responded somewhat embarrassed. "But I want in. Who's to say that next week he won't decide the Yamanaka clan is being too uppity? I'm not about to sit around and wait for that to happen."

Looking at Sasuke the other boy thought for a second and then nodded.

"Then let's make a promise." Naruto said sticking his hand out. "That we'll see the Sandaime brought to justice, no matter how long it takes."

"Right." said Sasuke and Ino together as each of them put their hands on top of Naruto's.

"That's it." Naruto said. "That's the promise of a lifetime."

******

**AN**

There it is. Hopefully this chapter was much more exciting than the last one. Smashed past my record for longest chapter again too. This chapter also gets my vote as the author for my favorite chapter I've ever written. I don't know if it's the best, but it's the one I enjoyed writing more than any other.

This brings a close to part 1. I now have at least the basic outline for the story planned straight through to the end and there should be two more parts before it comes to a close.

I should probably call this story complete and create a new one with different name. Obviously the current name won't fit well from this point on. But I find I don't really care about that, so I'll just keep adding chapters to this one and make it easier on those who already have an alert on it.

Love the plot twist? Hate it? I'd be happy to hear your opinions on that or anything else. It won't be the last twist you'll see. I promise you that.


	4. Chapter 4

Naruto was preparing for bed when he heard a knock on his door. Deciding to see who it could be at this hour, he made his way to the entrance and opened the door to reveal a man and a woman.

He recognized the man as one of Konoha's ninja. Hayate he believed the name was. He had no clue who the woman was other than that she was wearing an ANBU uniform, sans mask.

"My name is Yugao." the woman said answering his unspoken question. "And this is Hayate. We're here because I recently learned that your father was responsible for saving the life of this fool next to me. He'd let himself get caught spying on secret meeting taking place between Suna and Oto. Your father had to bail him out."

It was clear the man didn't want to be here. But Yugao was keeping on firm grip on him, so Naruto didn't think it likely he would be able to run off. The man didn't look entirely well either, having already had more than one coughing fit in the brief time he'd been standing there.

"Despite all his faults, he means a lot to me." Yugao continued. "I would have liked to thank your father personally, but I will convey our gratitude to you in his stead. If there's anything you need from us please don't hesitate to ask. It would be an honor to repay our debt to the Yondaime through his son."

This was hardly the first such meeting he'd had in the few days since the funeral. It seemed there was no shortage of gracious people. It was nice to hear from anyone, but this was the first case where ninja of this caliber were basically telling him they owed him a favor.

"I appreciate the sentiments." Naruto told them in reply. "I'm sure my father would as well. If I think of anything I need your help with, I'll let you know."

"Please do." she said bowing to Naruto. Then, looking at the man who had yet to say a word she elbowed him harshly in the side.

The man quickly recovered and bowed himself. "Yes *cough* I am very thankful for your father's actions."

Having paid their respects the two of them departed.

******

Going back to training with the Sandaime as if nothing had happened was probably one of the hardest things Naruto had ever done. He would've suspected Sasuke would be the one to have the hardest time acting convincingly, given how much more emotionally involved he was in the whole thing.

But his teammate turned out to be a stellar actor who never seemed to let out the slightest hint anything was off. Ino's performance was probably just as good, but not as impressive given how her life was less directly impacted by the Sandaime.

It was Naruto who had the most trouble those first couple of days. He could, at least, pass off any strange behavior as a reaction to his father's death. He believed he'd improved his acting quick enough that no one had become suspicious.

At least the training itself had improved. The Sandaime had finally decided they were ready to take the next step in their training. He'd determined each of their elemental affinities. Wind for Naruto, fire for Sasuke, and water for Ino.

After that he began to work into their training a lot of time developing their affinities. He also started teaching them a number of jutsu that were suited to their primary elemental attribute.

Whatever else you could say about him, the man certainly deserved to be called The Professor. He had no shortage of useful jutsu to teach them that were good for just about any situation.

Their 'extracurricular' activities proved to be far less fruitful. They were pretty stuck on how they would ask around for information without letting the wrong people find out they were doing so.

For now it mostly involved a lot of searching Naruto's house hoping to find something left behind by his father. In particular some clue as to how he'd proved the Sandaime's connection to the Uchiha slaughter. So far he'd found several hidden stashes of weapons, an emergency money supply, and some old love letters between his parents that he did _not_ want to think about again.

They found nothing that was of any use in their endeavor.

And so the months went by in a very routine manner. Train during the day and waste time to no effect when they had time off. Mixed in was the occasional mission, but none of them had been very eventful.

Before they knew it, the time had come for the next Chuunin Exam. This time, the Sandaime had allowed them to participate. Naruto was, at that moment, discussing that exam with his friends from Team 10. Over food, as usual. This time they'd met at a sushi place. Chouji didn't seem to be letting the more expensive fare put a damper on his consumption levels.

"So, what's your team going to do with you being a Chuunin already?" Naruto queried Shikamaru.

"Neji and I are being replaced with a couple of older genin who lost a teammate. For the duration of the exam that is. I don't know anything about either of them."

"The team won't be the same without you." Chouji stated. "If I die during the exams, I'll haunt you as punishment for getting promoted without me."

"Don't worry, Chouji." Naruto reassured him. "I'll be making a beeline for the strong teams first chance I get. They'll all be too beat up to give you any trouble."

"I don't know, Naruto." Chouji replied, unconvinced. "I'm sure you're strong and all, training with the Hokage all this time, but there were some real monsters last time. Like that Gaara guy. You should avoid him if he shows up again."

"Believe me," Naruto said confidently, "there won't be anyone in that exam scarier than I am."

******

The exams were being held in Kusagakure this time. It was a small country in the land of Grass located between Earth and Fire countries. The terrain wasn't too dissimilar from Fire country. They'd passed by a lot of grasslands and a number of forests on the way to the village.

Naruto had wanted to travel with the other genin groups, but the old geezer had insisted on training them right down to the last possible day. So their team was alone as they showed their passports the guards at the entrance to Kusagakure. Not even Aburame-sensei had come with them, the Sandaime saying he was needed for other work.

Having been cleared to enter, they made their way to a hotel they'd been directed to by one of the guards. They were going to have time to check in and leave their baggage, but then it would be straight to the registration for the exams, which were starting in just a couple of hours.

While signing into the hotel, three genin from Kiri made their way down the stairs, probably heading to registration themselves.

The largest of the group, stopped and looked at the three of them checking in. He appeared to be about a year or two older than Naruto's team. "You're arriving awfully late." he declared. "Having second thoughts about entering? I won't blame you if you're scared. This isn't exactly the safest place for rookie genin like yourselves."

"Buzz off." Ino told him. "We're late enough already and we don't have time to deal with your stupid prattling."

The Kiri-nin laughed at her barb. "The girl's got some claws. I was just giving you some friendly advice, you might want to consider taking it."

The team started walking off again. On his way out, the smallest member of their team, a boy who looked about their own age paused in front of them. He bowed in front of them showing a sword strapped to his back that seemed a little large for a boy of his size.

"I apologize if my team offended you." he said companionably "I'm sure you're perfectly capable of taking the exam. Although I'm actually very nervous myself."

The boy then smiled at them in a friendly manner, showing off a set of sharp pointy teeth.

"What are you doing back there Chojiro?" his older teammate yelled back at him.

"Sorry, I'm coming." he replied quickly rushing after his teammates.

******

Daisuke was very nervous to be standing in a room with all these foreign ninja. It was his first time outside of Iwagakure, let alone visiting another country. His team hadn't even been nominated for the genin exams. But there was a team with only two members and he'd somehow been chosen to fill in the third spot so they could participate.

It could have been worse though, Hideo, the older genin who was acting as leader of their team was friendly enough. Hideo was two years his senior, at 15, and kept his dark brown hair barely too long to be considered a buzz cut. A common style among boys of their village, and one that closely mirrored how Daisuke kept his own lighter brown hair.

The third member of their team was a very large, muscled boy, the same age as Hideo named Ishi. Ishi kept his head completely bald and wore nothing but a pair of shorts and his headband. Daisuke had never heard him utter a single word. Hideo told him the large genin was following something call 'The Way of the Stone' an old family tradition of his.

Iwa had sent three teams to this exam and all of them were currently standing in a group together waiting for it to begin. Hideo took the time to try to give some advice to his fellow villagers.

"There are a number of teams you'll probably want to avoid if possible." he lectured "You should all be thankful that Suna isn't sending any teams to this one, so we'll avoid one monster from the last exam."

Seeing he had all of their attention he continued. "So the Konoha teams are who you'll really need to be careful of. Four of the six teams that made it through the first two exams were from Konoha. Three of those teams are here today."

"The last exams were in Konoha." a genin on one of the other teams responded dismissively. "Everyone know the judges always cheat to help the home teams."

"I would remind you," Hideo replied sternly, "that I was actually at the last exam. I saw these teams for myself, it was not simple cheating that allowed them to advance. We're fortunate that two of their best genin were promoted. However there is one more team I'm worried about."

"The new genin team team from Konoha." Hideo said to Daisuke's surprise. What was so scary about the new team? Looking at them he didn't see anything particularly worrisome about them.

"I overheard talk at the exam in Konoha." Hideo continued. "Supposedly the top three ranked genin from their year were all put on the same team. And for some reason they didn't participate with their classmates last year. With how good both those teams were as rookie genin, I'd recommend staying away from any team composed only of members that had bettered them."

"You're saying we should be afraid of some brats at their first ever exams." the same heckler as before mocked. "We may not have gone six months ago but this isn't our first time at one of these."

"Besides, I've overheard a little something myself." he added conspiratorially. "That little blond boy in their group, is Namikaze Naruto. If we should happen to kill the son of the Yellow Flash, we'll be heroes back home. I for one, am heading straight for their group first time the examiners let us fight."

Looking around at the other Iwa-nin for support the confident genin continued to make his case. "Who's with me? We can even go together. There's enough glory for all of us, and maybe three to one odds will make Hideo brave enough not to run from three cute little rookies."

The other two teams quickly agreed to this plan but Hideo didn't look convinced at all. "I was overconfident six months ago and one of my teammates died because of it. I won't be making that mistake again. You can count me out."

Hearing a disturbance Daisuke turned and saw older, graying Kusa-nin enter and begin calling for quiet. When he finally got the room settled he began to explain.

"Welcome to Kusagakure." the middle aged ninja said "For those of you who were at the exam six months ago, we'll be running things a little differently than they did in Konoha. To begin with, we aren't very fond of written exams here so we'll get right to the action."

The man stopped to look around the room as if judging everyone there. His face gave no indication of if he liked what he saw or not, but the man continued his explanation nonetheless. "We did, however, enjoy what they did with the second exam quite a bit. So we are going to make this one very similar. We only have your standard forest to work with, but I'm hoping you lot will provide all the death we need."

Daisuke was not exactly comforted by the man's words. He was really beginning to wish they'd picked someone else to go with Hideo and Ishi.

"Seeing as we're doing it on the first exam, we'll be a bit more generous." the Kusa-nin said. "We'll give each member of your team one card. They're all exactly alike so don't worry about that. To pass, you just need to get to the center of the forest in three days, and bring at least four cards with you."

"For those who are bad at math," he supplied mockingly, "that means you only need one more than what you start with. So as many as three-fourths of the teams could pass."

"Now, come grab your cards, a number to tell you what gate to start at, and a form to sign away your lives." the man said cheerfully. Daisuke couldn't shake the feeling the man was enjoying his discomfort personally. "Let's get this thing started."

******

Naruto stood with his team in front of the gate they'd been assigned feeling excited it was finally about to start. Remembering something he rifled through his bag and pulled out three of the special kunai of his father's.

"I brought one of these for each of us." he told them.

Sasuke recognized what they were immediately. "You know hiraishin now?" he asked, dumbfounded at the possibility.

"I wish." Naruto said then looked down at the ground in a despondent manner. "It wasn't exactly the sort of technique you risked writing down all over the place. I'm afraid if there's any record of the jutsu I haven't found it. I just thought it'd be nice if we could each carry one of them in honor of my dad."

"I'd be happy to, Naruto." Ino told him taking one of the kunai carefully. Sasuke made less effort to cheer Naruto up, but he was glad Sasuke at least took one without any complaints.

Going back to waiting, it wasn't long before they heard the signal to start. One of the examiners opened their gate for them, and the three made their way casually into the forest.

Walking along slowly, they began to debate the best way to go about finding other teams. This went on for only a couple of minutes before they were interrupted.

"You don't need to worry about any of that stuff." a voice called out. "You'll be dead very shortly."

Looking around Naruto saw they were surrounded by six Iwa-nin. That put a smile on his face. "How nice." Naruto announced cheerfully. "They came right to us. You guys ready to get started?"

******

Daisuke sat waiting in the building that served as the goal for the first exam. Thankfully his teammates had proven very competent. Hideo had led them to a team he had marked as looking pretty weak. They'd won, collected three cards then moved immediately towards the center.

He'd traded away two of their extras to avoid fights along the way, and the three of them had made it safely without any other conflicts, arriving on the first day of the exam. There had only been two teams there in front of them. One from Konoha, and one from Kumo.

The Konoha team had some creepy boy in a trench coat, a feral looking boy with a dog, and a girl with strange eyes who must have been a Hyuuga.

There was now only one hour left before the exam ended, and while three of the Konoha teams Hideo had mentioned were here, the team with the Namikaze on it that he'd been particularly worried about had not arrived.

"I'm kind of relieved that the Namikaze team didn't turn out to be as powerful as you'd feared." Daisuke said. "I wouldn't want to face a team that strong."

"What makes you assume I was wrong just because they aren't here?" Hideo asked. "It's very possible they were a powerful team and were just defeated by even stronger team. You'll notice neither of our teams that were going after them came back either."

"Whatever team beat them," he continued, "is probably in this very room already."

Daisuke gulped looking around fearfully at all the teams. Imagining what kind of monsters they all were.

But it appeared their speculation was for nothing as the team they were discussing walked in that very moment, looking no worse for their extended time in the forest.

The feral looking Konoha boy went up to greet them at the desk where participants had to turn in their cards. "What took you guys so long?" he asked cheekily. "Found out it isn't so easy out there after all?"

The blonde girl smirked at him and reached into a pouch, pulling out a big pile of cards and slamming them down onto the table. "Twenty-one." she said confidently.

The boy was taken aback by this but quickly recovered. "Big deal." he said nonchalantly. "We finished on the first day. We could have got that many easily if we'd stayed out just to collect them like you did."

Ignoring him completely, the Namikaze boy reached into his own pouch and bringing out a second pile of cards. "Twenty-five" he said triumphantly.

He was almost too numb to care when the other boy on the Namikaze team pulled out a third stack of cards. "Twenty-six" he declared.

The blond boy grabbed the cards from his teammate and rifled through, clearly counting them, but judging from the despondent look on his face, the count must have been accurate.

They couldn't have actually split up could they? Here Daisuke was fearing for his life, and the three of them treated the whole thing like some friendly competition between them?

The whole room was glaring at the three of them now, having watched their little show. Daisuke decided right then that he had a huge debt to make up to Hideo for keeping out of the plan to target the team of demons up there.

******

**AN**

Lots to discuss in this set of notes. First off, I'm sure a number of you will be upset with me for seeming to avoid the hiraishin after I'd already made you suffer by killing off the Yondaime so soon. I'd just like to remind you that I never said Naruto wouldn't ever learn the ability. You haven't seen the last of it in this story.

Next up, yes the team of three from Iwa I named are original characters. I wanted an outside viewpoint from which to view the Konoha teams. They'll be sticking around in the next chapter in a reduced role and beyond that I have no plans to even include them in the story.

Third, I avoided actually writing the action scenes for the first part of the exam. I like the scene as the end of this chapter and sort of needed to skip over most everything that happened during the first phase for it to work right. For those who like action, I will go into detail for most of the important parts of the second and final exams. In addition, the second exam will have a bit more of an original twist to it than the first one did.

Finally, yes I'm going off on a bit of a tangent from the main plot here, but I wanted to write the Chuunin Exams and dogonnit I was going to do just that. It should only be one more chapter, and then I promise to get back to the regularly scheduled plot you probably care more about. I'll try to keep it as entertaining as possible in the meantime. If I can keep putting out a chapter a day, there's not much to complain about anyways in my opinion. :)


	5. Chapter 5

Naruto's team had waited till near the end of the exam to finish. As such, it wasn't long after they'd arrived when the Kusa-nin from the registration room showed up and calmed down the room again.

"Congratulations on making it through the first round." he told them. "Now that you've had a chance to test your mettle in combat, we thought we'd mix the exams up a bit by sending you right back to fighting. This round will be a little different for a couple of reasons."

A couple of his aids rolled a large board into the room that Naruto saw had all the remaining teams written on it. They were split into three groups. Each group had a number written next to it.

Naruto couldn't figure out what the numbers were for. Some of them repeated multiple times, others showed up only once. He noticed that their team's number of 63 was the largest number by a fair margin with 7 being the lowest number. But he had no idea if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

"As you can see," the examiner went on, "we have split the 24 remaining teams into three groups of eight. We have a ring set up for each of the groups in various rooms in this complex. Each group will fight a team based free-for-all battle."

"What are the numbers for?" one of the other examinees inquired.

"I'm glad you asked." the man replied rubbing his hands together as if excited to explain this part. "As I hope you're aware, ninja are creatures of stealth. Assassinations, spying, covert operations. It's generally not a desirable thing for a ninja to attract attention to himself."

Naruto had a vague idea where this was going now and he didn't much like that direction.

"We've compiled a number for each of you based on various factors." he informed them. "Mostly based on how many cards you brought in, although other factors such as how soon you arrived came into play as well. In any ring 50 points worth of teams will be allowed to pass."

Wait 50 points? Wasn't their number 63? That didn't mean they'd already failed did it? You can't fail an exam before you even take it can you?

Oblivious to Naruto's worries, which he saw reflected in his teammates' faces, the man continued. "A competitor is eliminated if he is knocked from the ring, gives up, or is rendered unable to fight. When all three members are eliminated the team is out. Once the point total drops below 50, the judge beside the ring will raise his hand. At that point simply leave the ring to pass."

"What if we don't want to let them leave the ring?" a Kumo-nin asked facetiously.

"By all means," the examiner replied, giving no indication he'd realized the genin was joking, "until they leave the ring, they're still fair game. You just, obviously, can't make use of ring outs anymore."

"What about our team?" Naruto yelled out not willing to wait anymore.

"Yes, due to your team's unexpected little rampage through the woods, we've added a little addendum to the rules." he replied to Naruto's immense relief. "Your team can still pass as long as you're the only team left."

"Of course ...," he added as if only just considering something. "none of the other teams in your group can pass unless they eliminate your team first. So they may have a slight tendency to gang up on you."

Naruto would've bet he could tell exactly what ninja where in the same group as him at that moment. Because all of them were glaring right at his team, filling the air with killing intent.

******

Kiba was walking along, cheerfully following their guide to his group's arena. Sure those three showoffs had the highest score, but it had taken them three days to get their points. Kiba's team was second at 35 and had done it in less than an hour. By Kiba's math, that meant they'd been earning points at a much faster rate. Getting there first sure had paid off.

"Everyone into the ring." their guide said when they arrived. "But no fighting until I give the signal. You'll have a few minutes to talk among yourselves until then."

Kiba was happy to see their team was the center of attention. And none of the other Konoha teams were in his group so he didn't have to feel bad about beating anyone up. Team 10 and that older group with the Lee kid had gotten stuck in the same group. And at 25 and 27 points respectively, they were just too high to both pass. Well, tough luck for them. That was none of Kiba's concern.

"Their team is worth the most points." he heard one his opponents say. "It'd be best if we work together until we've take them down."

"Yeah," another one replied. "most of us can pass if we just eliminate them first."

It looked like this idea was proving pretty popular, not that Kiba was worried or anything. He was sure they could take them all on ... somehow.

Then Kiba saw a lone Iwa-nin make his way towards them. "You guys want a little help?" he asked. "We're only worth 13 points so both our teams can pass this."

"What are you doing Hideo?" his smaller teammate cried out. If we help them everyone else will be trying to kill us.

"Just call it a hunch." the boy, apparently named Hideo, said.

Kiba was sure they didn't really need the help. But it had to be a nice inter-village gesture of friendship or some nonsense like that to help them out. So they should accept. But to help the other team, not because they needed help.

"Seeing as no one else seems inclined to aid us," Shino said beating Kiba to the punch, "it would be foolish of us to deny your offer of aid."

"You make it sound like we can't handle it." Kiba complained to stoic companion.

After that, the six of them grouped up and simply waited for the signal. "Go all out from the start." Shino told him. "Even with help, three-to-one odds are going to be difficult."

"Yeah, yeah, I know." Kiba assured him.

The signal finally given, Kiba tossed Akamaru a pill and took a second one himself. Shortly thereafter his partner had transformed to look just like him and the two started up a gatsuga to try to thin the crowd. Marking his first target, he rocketed towards him; only to have to dodge out of the way of some shuriken another ninja had thrown on an intercept course.

Almost as soon as he'd set on his new course he had to veer off again to avoid a katana slash. Deciding to make his way back to his team to regroup, he saw Hinata and the bald Iwa-nin appeared to have taken down one ninja each, judging by the unconscious bodies next to them. The youngest Iwa-nin had somehow managed to already get himself thrown from the ring. The other two were side by side with Hinata forming a defensive line guarding their section of the ring.

Heading back into the fray he found the whole fight increasingly frustrating. It seemed he couldn't focus on one person without having to dodge attacks from four other directions. Not all of them had been cleanly dodged either. He'd been thrilled when he finally managed to get a clean blow in and knock one from the ring but it'd been costly.

He moved back to the area defended by his allies and stopped his jutsu to stand there and catch his breath for a second. Akamaru came to a stop beside him. Somewhere along the line, Hinata had been knocked out as well. Quickly assessing his opponents, he was dismayed to see they'd only taken out five of them. That made it 5 against 15 counting Akamaru. But neither he nor his partner were in very good shape, both bleeding from numerous gashes they'd received.

And what was Shino doing? He'd hardly seen the boy do anything and the bug user looked as pristine as when the fight had started. Suddenly, seven of their adversaries collapsed, apparently too tired to stand anymore. Ah, so that's what he was doing. 5 against 7 looked much more promising to Kiba.

"I love it when my hunches are right." Hideo said.

Smiling Kiba and Akamaru started up another gatsuga and got back to work.

Having much fewer people focusing on him, made fighting much simpler. Kiba was quite pleased that 5 of the remaining 8 had been taken out between Akamaru and him. It had been pretty easy to cleanup after that point and he saw the judge's hand go up. Stepping out of the ring he let out a cheer.

******

"7-to-1 odds." Naruto said speculatively as he waited for the signal to start. Every other team was already focused on them. "We never fought odds that bad in the first round. This could be a little rough."

"It's worse than that." Sasuke opined. "These are the ones who passed. We have to expect them to be stronger than the ones back in the forest. Especially after the first day, we would have only fought the trash of the exams."

"Well, I hope you two are ready to do more than just talk." Ino told them as they noticed the judge preparing to give the signal. And with that, they were off.

As soon as the fight started, Naruto went through some hand seals as quickly as he could manage. A large gust of wind then shot out in all directions away from him. His teammates, and most of their opponents were able to deal with the brief blast, but four of the more unprepared were hurled right out of the ring.

"Got rid of the weaklings." Naruto declared. "Just 17 more to go."

Naruto quickly charged the center of the group, but came up short when he saw a huge stream of fire heading his way. Before he needed to react further, it was met with an equally large stream of water from Ino. A large cloud of steam erupted from where they met. Out of that cloud of steam came all manner of shuriken, kunai, needles, and other assorted weapons towards his current position.

Dodging around most of them, he almost noticed too late that more than a few of them had explosive tags on them. "Give me a break!" Naruto yelled out loud while leaping to the side as fast as he could. The explosion hit him from behind, not doing any real damage but increasing his velocity such that he realized his trajectory would take him outside the ring.

Sending out an intense blast of wind away from the ring, he rocketed himself back inside and into a competitor. One who hadn't been expecting such a sudden change of direction to occur from him while still in midair. Naruto rewarded him for his lack of foresight by impounding his face in the floor of the ring as he went by.

Went by directly towards a large rock that was flying right at him that was. He also spotted what he had to describe as a downpour of needles coming from above him. Running towards the rock, he flattened himself on the ground letting it pass over him while the needles bounced harmlessly off the top of it.

As soon as the rock had passed overhead he leaped into the air and with a kick altered the rocks direction sending it hurdling into a startled Kumo-nin and taking them both out of the ring. Naruto was sent in the opposite direction by the force of his kick.

"Welcome back." Sasuke told him as landed by his two teammates, neither of which had moved much during his little display of acrobatics, preferring to take the ring apart with an impressive display of high level jutsu. "Did you have fun?"

"You two have no style." Naruto joked "How do you want to divide up the last seven?"

"I don't care anymore!" one of those remaining seven screamed. "It's not worth it." The ninja, a Kusa native, sprinted to the edge of the ring and dived off.

As if his breakdown had sparked a panic among the others, five more of them dropped whatever weapons they were carrying and made their way quickly out of the ring, the last remaining genin trying to convince them to stay and fight.

When he noticed none of them had heeded him, he seemed to suddenly rethink his stance and went with the wisdom of the majority.

"That was anticlimactic." Ino deadpanned.

******

He'd gotten a bit lost, but Naruto finally made his way to the arena where Chouji's team would have fought. He was worried about his friend's chances. Lee's team was supposed to be pretty strong, and without Shikamaru, he was afraid the Akamichi boy wouldn't be able to overcome them as they'd need to in order to pass.

Looking around, he saw the place almost deserted. Noticing one of the examiners still around, he immediately approached him. "Which teams passed here?" he asked of the man.

"The only team that passed in this arena was a team from Kiri." he replied to Naruto's astonishment. He had been certain one of the Konoha teams would pass. Had they taken each other out?

"Is my friend ok?" Naruto asked worriedly. "He's the fat one from Konoha." he added hardly worried about his friend's feelings at that point.

"Yeah, I remember him." the examiner replied. "Turned himself into a big ball as soon as the fight started. Tried to bowl over his opponents, overshot, and went right off the other end of the ring. I think he was the first person eliminated."

"Well ... um ... thanks for the information." he said, embarrassed for his friend but glad the other boy was alright.

******

"Only four teams passed the second exam." the examiner told after they'd all been gathered together again. "Furthermore, one of the entrants from Iwa has withdrawn citing injuries. That leaves 11 of you, which makes this easy."

"We'll be able to do the finals with this many people, so everyone step forward and draw a number."

One by one, they did so. After all the names were filled in he examined the tournament brackets. Seems he'd be fighting Sasuke in the semi-finals. He'd been hoping for an epic battle in the final round, but this would have to do.

Ino would be his opponent in the finals he concluded, and that wouldn't be a boring fight at least. He was one of the six examinees who needed to fight four rounds.

Looked like Hinata would be up first. Naruto didn't know much about the quiet girl, but he didn't expect that fight to be very hard. Sasuke and Ino only had 3 rounds each. Ino would be up against either Kiba or a big bald Iwa-nin. And it looked like Sasuke would get a chance to beat up the Kiri-nin who had insulted them when they'd first arrived.

Now what to do for the next month before the finals started?

******

Naruto was discussing their plans for the next month with Sasuke and Ino.

"We should split up and train on our own." he suggested. "I'd like a chance to come up with a few surprises for you two."

"I agree." Sasuke responded, "But first I have something more important to discuss."

"What's that?" Ino asked curiously.

"I have a plan to help us find a lead." Sasuke informed them.

"Can't it wait?" Naruto asked. In his opinion Sasuke was getting just a little obsessed. Couldn't he just take some time off for one month? "It's not like there's going to be any evidence lying around out here."

"No, but there are plenty of people from villages that hate Konoha." Sasuke responded to Naruto's puzzlement.

"I think I'm missing something." Ino said, not seeming to understand where Sasuke was headed with this anymore than Naruto was.

"The villages they're from all have extensive spy networks and no love for the Hokage." Sasuke said finally letting Naruto in on what he was thinking. "I'm sure they'd be eager to investigate any lead that could cause internal strife for a rival village."

"Well then," Ino said eager to put the plan into action. "let's start looking into who would be the best targets to approach."

"That won't be necessary." Sasuke responded. "I've already done that and discreetly handed off notes to the right people. It's all taken care of."

"Nice of you to keep us in the loop." Naruto deadpanned.

"I thought it would polite." Sasuke responded in just as serious a tone.

******

The day of the finals had finally come. Ten of the competitors were already at the meeting area, just one Kiri-nin still missing. A couple minutes later, the missing ninja, who Naruto believed was named Chojuro, came running up.

The first thing he noticed was that the boy replaced the sword he'd been using that had looked a bit oversized for him. Instead he had an even larger sword strapped to his back. Naruto was surprised the young ninja could even lift the massive sword that actually had two handles.

"Sorry I'm late." the boy cried out when he'd arrived, stopping to catch his breath from the effort of getting there.

"That's Hiramekarei" Ino gasped also noticing the strange sword. "One of the blades of the Seven Swordsman."

"Yes." the boy said embarrassed at the attention. "I didn't use it earlier because it tires me out too much carrying it around everywhere. But I wanted to at least use it during the finals."

Not much further conversation went on in the tense atmosphere, and soon the first fight was going to start. Kiba versus that overly muscled Iwa-nin.

******

Kiba sat sizing up his opponent. He'd already seen the other ninja fight. He was big, slow moving, and didn't seem too bright. The perfect opponent for Kiba and Akamaru. They'd tear him apart piece by piece with a gatsuga and there wasn't anything he could do about it.

The match was called to start and Kiba and Akamaru each took a pill in preparation for their next move.

"You will not move me from this spot." his opponent declared. The rock from the ground seemed to crawling up the other boy, covering him in a layer of it as if it were armor. Soon he was completely covered by the material and his feet were firmly connected to the ground in one solid mass.

Akamaru having completed his transformation, Kiba thought it was time to show the Iwa-nin how useless his armor was as they drilled through it. "Gatsuga!" he yelled beginning his spin and rushing towards his stationary opponent.

Then he hit and was suddenly seeing stars. That had been harder than any rock he'd ever seen. Still somewhat disoriented, he glanced at his opponent, whose armor seemed barely scratched. Then too late too dodge he saw a massive stone covered fist coming down on him. Then blackness.

******

Naruto sat in the stands, laughing at Kiba's loss. "So his big plan to deal with someone covered in rock, was to run head first into him?" he asked rhetorically of his teammates, still unable to stop laughing.

"I hope you can think of something better than that when you fight him, Ino." he went on.

"Quiet down." Sasuke commanded him. "They're about to start the next match, and I want get a look at this Kiri team that took out the rest of their group in the second exam."

Shino was matched up against the Kiri-nin. Naruto didn't know what to think of this one as he hadn't insulted them like the group's apparent leader, or been polite like the youngest member. The match started and Naruto watched intently, as curious as Sasuke as to how skilled he'd be.

He didn't know what he'd been expecting, but he certainly was hoping for more than this. The match had quickly turned very one-sided. Shino easily avoided all of his opponent's attacks and quickly got a number of his bugs onto the other boy.

Now the Kiri-nin had stopped even trying to attack and was futilely brushing the swarming kikai bugs off him. Soon the boy became too tired to even continue that and dropped to the ground, Shino being declared the winner.

"Well, I'm up." Naruto said cheerfully, hopping over the rail of the arena and into the center area. He idly noticed that the Hokage had decided not to show up for this event. That was fine with Naruto. The geezer didn't deserve the show Naruto was going to put on for the crowd today.

He saw Hinata nervously making her way to the starting area seeming to wilt under the pressure of the crowd. The start of the match was called and Naruto dashed towards the Hyuuga girl at top speed. Seeing him coming she gave out a squeak and fell on her rear.

Naruto slowed to a stop in front of her. "What are you doing?" he asked.

"Well ... I'm n-not as good as you, Naruto-kun." she managed to stutter out. "T-there's no way I can beat you."

"Of course I'm better than you." Naruto declared seeing the girl become even more depressed, if possible. "But that doesn't mean I'm going to let you give up without even trying. You never know what you can or can't do until you've tried."

The girl looked up at him in surprise. The crowd was now booing them for just standing there but Naruto didn't care. "Now try to hit me." he ordered her.

"W-what?" she asked incredulously.

"Hit me. Now." he repeated as forcefully as he could.

Standing up, she gathered herself together and made a pathetic attempt at doing that. One Naruto barely even needed to dodge.

"Again, but harder." he added as further encouragement. Her next attack at least wasn't completely hopeless, but still no challenge for Naruto.

"Keep going. Faster, harder, keep up the pressure, I know you can do better than this." barked Naruto as he continued his directions. While starting clumsily, the girl's attacks slowly gained in intensity. Despite her initial hesitancy, she seemed to really be getting into the fight. That last combo had been pretty good.

Whoa! That one had grazed him. Maybe this wasn't the best time to be training his opponent. Deciding to start taking the match seriously he circled around behind the girl with a burst of speed while forming his father's famous rasengan in one of his hands.

"Sorry, Hinata." he called out from behind the girl, before slamming it into her back sending her tumbling end over end along the floor of the arena before being stopped by the wall. She didn't get back up and the judge declared him the winner.

******

Ino still wasn't certain how she was going to deal with her first match in this fight. The first partial round was over and it was now the quarterfinals. She had seven opponents remaining but none of that mattered if she couldn't get past this round.

The first thing she would try would be to get to her opponent before he could get up his armor. Beyond that, she had a couple more things she could try, but she was really hoping to save one of those options as a trump card for the finals.

The start of the match called, she rushed forward as fast as she could.

"You will not move me from this spot." her opponent declared as plainly as in his first match, armor already forming around him.

Despite her best effort, she was just too slow with her kick, the armor having just formed around his head. So she used the force to bounce back out of his range.

She didn't expect this to work, but just to try, she formed up her highest level water jutsu, sending a dragon of water hurling at the boy. But it just crashed against him to no apparent effect.

Time for Plan B. She'd force him to move. Performing another jutsu, she caused a stream of water to come up from the ground surrounding the Iwa-nin then forced it to stay in place around the boy.

"Let's see how long you stay put when you can't breath." she declared then waited to see what the boy did. He seemed to be pretty stubbornly doing nothing. He was probably hoping Ino would let her guard down before he tried something, but she wasn't about to make that mistake.

Suddenly he started waving his arms around frantically. What did he take her for thinking she would fall for a simple ploy like that? But the thrashing continued until the boy suddenly went still.

The referee seemed briefly confused as to what to do as well before calling a stop to the match and declaring her the winner. Medic-nins then rushed in and were able to quickly revive the half-drowned Iwa-nin.

Well, he was right, she certainly hadn't moved him.

******

"It's nice to meet you." Chojuro said, bowing to Shino. "I'm sorry if I don't give you a good fight. You beat my teammate so easily I'm not sure if I'll be able to do much against you."

Shino was not about to take his words at face value and vowed silently to take this fight seriously.

When the fight started he moved to what he deemed to be just barely in the attack range of that boy's sword, hoping to provoke an attack. The boy obliged, and Shino dodged back just out of range, letting a number of his kikai bugs jump onto the flat side of the sword as it went past.

The boy didn't seem to notice and Shino repeated the process a couple more times sending more bugs after his opponent each time.

Most of the bugs were now on the sword-wielder when he noticed something was wrong and gasped. Making a quick one-handed sign, which impressed Shino about as much as the fact he was now holding that sword in just one hand, his skin took on a watery hue.

A small blast of water then shot out in all directions from his body, removing all the bugs on him. This was problematic, not only could he easily remove the kikai bugs, now that they were soaked, they were having difficulty moving around.

It seemed Shino would have to take the boy out directly. A sword that large would have a great deal of inertia. Moving closer to the boy, he finally got the reaction he wanted with a large downward stroke coming directly at him. His body was sliced in two, only to dissolve into the bugs that had been disguised as him.

The real Shino rushed in from directly behind the boy, kunai in hand, determined to finish this while the boy was still committed to his swing.

Faster than Shino would have thought possible, the edge of the sword was turned 90 degrees and the mist-nin was spinning it in a high speed circle.

Not able to get out of the way in time, Shino blocked with his kunai, cursing himself for underestimating the boy's physical strength. The force of the blow lifted him off the ground Shino was dismayed to see his kunai soon gave way, letting the sword continue its path and into Shino's side.

The kunai had done enough to save his life, but it was still a nasty gash he had. It was clear continuing this fight would be unwise. "I give up." he announced, calmly ending the match.

******

Sasuke had decided not waste any time on his first match and had taken down the Kiri-nin he was up against mere seconds after the match started. Naruto had taken that as a challenge and repeated the feat is his own match against the last Iwa-nin.

Now it was time for Ino to start off the semifinals a match against the sword-wielding boy who had defeated Shino. That match had made it clear, who exactly was responsible for his team passing the second exam.

When the exam started, instead of taking out his sword the boy began going through hand seals which Ino immediately recognized. Quickly going through the same ones herself she fired off her own water dragon only moments after her opponent did. They clashed in the middle and Ino's actually proved stronger. But with most of its force spent it did little more than drench Chojuro.

"Aren't you from Fire Country?" he asked her. "Why are you using water attacks?"

"Sorry, but my affinity is water." Ino replied. "I'm not going to handicap myself just for the sake of a theme."

"That's too bad." the boy said morosely. "I was hoping to have the advantage in a fire versus water fight. What am I going to do now?"

"Didn't you see me using that attack in my last fight?" Ino inquired of him.

"Heh heh. I kind of got nervous and had to go to the bathroom." he responded reddening at the admission. "I guess I'll just have to hope my sword is enough."

Now it was about to get serious, Ino decided. She was not about to get close to the boy and make the same mistake Shino had. But he had admitted himself that carrying the sword was tiring, if she just stayed at a distance and forced him to move around a lot she should be able to wear him out until he slipped up.

Her plan worked pretty well for a while. The boy couldn't match her in ranged combat, and she was able to flit around him sending shuriken, water jutsu, and kunai at him relentlessly forcing him to constantly dodge, block, and just move around a lot in general. It was clearly tiring him out.

But then she slipped up a little, letting him get a bit too close to her, he charged her with an astonishing speed despite his fatigue. She wasn't able to get out of the way in time and took a slash across her arm before she could get distance again.

She checked the wound and determined it to be shallow enough not to have any impact on the match, but a little more and that could have been bad. It seemed the boy had more stamina than she'd planned on. She could probably still wear him down, but she was beginning to tire a bit herself too.

Weighing the options in her head, she decided it wouldn't do any good for her to win if she was too tired to face Sasuke or Naruto in the finals. She wasn't certain she wouldn't slip up herself either. So it was time to reveal her trump card.

Repeating a set of seals she'd already used more than once today, she sent another water dragon at the Kiri-nin. As expected, he dodged to the side while lifting his sword to deflect it. But Ino was already going through a second set of seals, and as soon as it hit her sword the whole dragon began to freeze, encasing the sword solidly within it.

Charging her opponent, she was thankful that not even his strength was enough to extract the sword from its frozen tomb. Reaching him, a well placed kick forced him to release the weapon as we went tumbling across the arena floor.

Following right behind him, she pinned him to the ground holding a kunai to his neck.

"I give up!" he called out worriedly. "I give up!"

She let him up to the boy's obvious relief and left to go watch the match that would determine her opponent in the finals.

******

Naruto stared at his teammate standing across from him in the arena. Here was a chance to prove he was the better between them in front of a huge crowd of spectators.

As soon as the match started Naruto quickly maneuvered himself into close range initiating hand to hand combat. He always had a slight advantage in taijutsu, and he was going to keep the pressure on Sasuke so he didn't have time to use anything else.

It was working too. He was giving a little better than he got, and given enough time this would add up.

He was surprised though, not to see any worry on Sasuke's face. Instead his opponent actually started laughing. This was enough to make Naruto back up a couple of steps, somewhat concerned with what the other boy had planned.

"What are you laughing about?" he asked, still not convinced this wasn't just a ploy to buy Sasuke some time. "This isn't exactly going well for you. I've always had the upper hand in taijutsu."

"Yes you have ... until now." Sasuke said, then looking towards his teammate he gasped seeing his eyes had activated the Sharingan, each eye showing two tomoe. Since when could Sasuke do that?!

Naruto had to stay calm, he couldn't have had much chance to practice with them while keeping them hidden, he just had to stick with his original plan and not let himself be intimidated.

Resuming his assault, he discovered that things were in fact quite different. Sasuke was outdoing him at every turn, almost as if he could predict exactly what Naruto was going to do. He was being worked over pretty badly and it came to a head when Sasuke grabbed his arm into a painful throw that Naruto concluded must have dislocated his left shoulder.

Quickly popping his should back into place he found it more painful to move than he would have expected and wondered if something might have cracked up there. It seemed he would have to keep his distance. Rather than going back to melee range he did his best to ensure Sasuke stayed at range, turning it into a clash of kunai and shuriken with the occasional jutsu mixed in.

This kept up for quite some time and Sasuke began to taunt Naruto. "What happened to all your bravado?" He asked mockingly. "I expected more from you than just running away."

Naruto grit his teeth but refused to be drawn in by the barb continuing on the same as before. If he knew his friend, he was out of shuriken and down to his last two kunai. Naruto hadn't even realized in the tenseness of the match how he'd just referred to Sasuke in his mind and would have denied it even if he had.

Come on, just use up the last two. No don't dodge those kunai, block. Finally with Naruto's next wave of kunai, Sasuke used up his last two intercepting them in midair.

Yes! Now take it out. Take it out! Firing off half a dozen more shuriken Naruto was thrilled to see Sasuke reaching into his pouch one more time, the instant he pulled out the item it contained, Naruto had already put his hands into a seal.

Vanishing, Naruto reappeared an instant later, directly next to the special kunai he had just pulled out from his bag. The one Naruto had given him as a gift. Sasuke's eyes widened but it was too late for him to react as Naruto was already in motion with a kick that went straight up into the bottom of Sasuke's chin sending him hurtling into the air.

Leaping after Sasuke, he let the shuriken pass underneath the two of them while slamming a rasengan into his teammate's chest. The triple effect of the kick, the rasengan, and Sasuke's subsequent impact with the wall were enough to keep him down until Naruto was declared the winner.

******

"Let me get this straight." Sasuke said bitterly, having regained consciousness shortly after the match ended. "You lied to us, invoked your father's memory to guilt us into taking those kunai, for the sole purpose of using it against your own teammates in the final exam?"

"Yeah, that pretty much sums it up." Naruto replied cheerfully.

"Oh don't look at me like that." he added a moment later in response to Sasuke's glare. "You never told us you'd activated your sharingan either."

"But I'd never said I hadn't!" came the angry reply from Sasuke.

"Well, I don't even fully have it down now." Naruto said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. "I have to wait quite a while after a teleport before I can do it again."

"Come on Naruto." Ino told him impatiently. "You boys can argue later, it's time to start our match."

Ino was thankful the two had beaten each other up, and she was not about to give Naruto any more time to recover than necessary. As he'd just proved, he could be quite resourceful and surprising. Entering the arena, Naruto followed her out.

The referee was taking an annoyingly long time announcing this match, but Ino supposed that should be expected for the final match of the tournament.

Finally the match started, but the two of them were slow to do anything, each just watching the other. "If you're hoping to make use of that kunai you gave me, I'm afraid I forgot to bring it with me." Ino said, hoping to goad him to making the first move so she could get some idea of what his current condition was.

"That's ok." Naruto replied. "I brought my own."

That he had. Taking it out he tossed the kunai straight at her then ran towards her, himself, right behind it. Ino dodged to the side of the kunai, and was not caught off guard at all when Naruto put his hands into a seal and vanished a moment later.

Already expecting him to do that, she turned to face the kunai that had passed behind her, seeing ... nothing. Shoot. Turning back to her original direction she was already bringing her arms up to block, and was able to roll back and deflect some of the kick that was coming.

She noticed that her little sneak of a teammate had dropped a second kunai behind his back right before using hiraishin. Then instead of teleporting to the kunai he'd thrown he'd teleported right back to where he'd started.

Even with her hasty defense, Ino was propelled backwards, but was able to turn her flight into a flip, landing on her feet and skidding to a halt. That was it, no more miss nice kunoichi.

Sprinting back towards Naruto she began to engage him in taijutsu. Normally not something she would recommend, but his left shoulder was clearly still bothering him and it was slowing him down some. Deciding to take advantage of it further, she exploited one slow block and landed a hard punch right to his injured shoulder.

The boy gasped in pain and Ino used his distraction to follow up with a quick jab to his face, knocking his head back. Ino continued this strategy for a while, staying close to him and taking every chance she got to attack his shoulder. His left arm was becoming slower to react after each blow making the process easier as time progressed.

"Stop doing that!" Naruto yelled, and with an adrenaline fueled surge of speed finally managed to grab Ino's attacking arm before it could hit and throw her away gaining himself some space.

Ino was already going through hand seals as she flipped into a landing. Naruto attempted to do the same, but must have found his left arm more unresponsive than he'd anticipated as he had to cancel before he finished and switch over to dodging the blast of water that came at him.

Fortunately for Ino, he'd switched a little too late and wasn't able to completely clear the attack. So when she followed up by freezing the water a moment later, he found one of his legs trapped partially within it.

Not giving him a moment's rest as his leap was cut short, she put her hands in front of her in a position well known among members of her clan. "Shintenshin no jutsu." she called out mind going blank.

When she came to a moment later, she was relieved to see her own body slouching to the ground. She'd been almost paranoid Naruto would find some way to dodge her final jutsu despite being stuck in ice.

Now it was time to end it. Raising Naruto's hand she called out to the judge. "I give up."

******

Ino and her team presently resided in the room Sasuke and Naruto had shared during their stay in Kusagakure. They were going to stay one more night before returning to Konoha in the morning. Ino sat on one of the beds while Naruto and Sasuke stood complaining about the events of the day.

"I still think it was low how you kept attacking my injury." Naruto pouted. "You're just lucky you only had easy fights before then."

"Quit whining." Sasuke said no more maturely than the first boy. "Just because you were too much of a baby to handle a little pain doesn't make it her fault you lost."

"Shut up Mr. Third Place." the blond shot back. "At least I beat you."

"You cheated!" Sasuke insisted, not for the first time since the exam had ended. "You set me up before the match. Why didn't you just put an exploding tag in my bag you could set off whenever you wanted? Better yet, why didn't you just poison my drink? I'm sure that would have been fair."

"Boys, boys," Ino said in mock arrogance, "both of you just can't accept that you were beaten by an, obviously superior, female teammate."

Naruto and Sasuke looked at each other, then as one each grabbed a corner of the bed's blanket and yanked it up, sending Ino falling backwards off the edge.

"How's that for superior?" Naruto asked smugly. Obviously her teammates weren't in the mood for jokes.

******

**AN**

To start with, I'd like to quote the AN from my previous chapter in reference to the hiraishin. "I never said Naruto wouldn't ever learn the ability." I also never said he didn't already know it. Naruto did and he's a liar.

So many fight scenes this chapter. I'd always been somewhat intimidated by them and tended to avoid them or keep them brief. But it turned out they weren't nearly as bad as I expected. I actually enjoyed coming up with most of them. I'd be interested to hear opinions on them, which ones, if any you liked. It is an area I hadn't had much practice with. I certainly have a lot more practice now.

I even snuck a little plot into the chapter when I'd said it wasn't going to be coming until the next one. Not much I know, but hopefully it'll wet your appetite for more. Things will be happening shortly.

Also, those of you who only watch the anime may think Chojuro is an OC, but he's not. I'm sorry if that's a bit of a spoiler to people, but I haven't spoiled much more than that he exists. Given how new he is even in the manga, I'll probably have people reading this, weeks from now, complaining about how OOC I portray him or something. He's not very well developed at the moment. He just made a convenient person, who looked about the right age to be a strong canon character that might be taking the exams with Naruto's team.

And yeah, Naruto beat up Hinata. Deal with it. That's it until next time.


	6. Chapter 6

All nine of the ninja who had graduated with Naruto were currently having a big celebration in honor of Naruto, Sasuke, Ino, and Shino's promotions to chuunin. Well, Kiba had stormed off early on being tired of all the jabs at his performance during his one fight in the final.

Also, Hinata had disappeared at some point which no one was quite sure of. Then there was Shino, who was still present, but had been sitting in the same spot doing next to nothing the entire night and could hardly be described as celebrating.

But Teams 7 and 10 were having a great time. "I still say you got scared and left the ring on purpose." Naruto said to Chouji. "You can't tell me you couldn't have stopped if you wanted to."

"It was a simple mistake." Chouji insisted stubbornly. "It just shows I need more training."

"I'm just glad you don't outrank me anymore." Naruto said happily to Shikamaru. "That was really starting to bug me."

"Meh." Shikamaru replied. "There's nothing great about being a chuunin. They just expect more from you, making the whole thing even more troublesome."

"That's because you never enjoy the benefits of your rank." Naruto said glibly. "Like this. Sakura, I order you to get up on the table and do the sexiest dance you know."

"What?!" The pink haired girl yelled spitting out the water she'd just been drinking.

"Ignore this idiot." Ino said after giving Naruto a quick blow to the head. "Not as if you could even do anything that would qualify as sexy."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sakura cried out. "I'm sure Sasuke is very disappointed I won't be dancing."

"As if." Ino replied cattily. "You could prance around all you want and Sasuke would still have no reason to look at you with me around."

The argument built up from there, until somehow both Sakura and Ino ended up on the table dancing provocatively.

"See." Naruto said prosudly. "Benefits of rank."

"How on earth did you do that?" Chouji asked incredulously.

Leaning forward, he motioned his friends closer then whispered conspiratorially, "It may have helped that I spiked their drinks a little."

"You are so dead tomorrow." Shikamaru told him sagely.

******

The party had started with a big a lunch but continued through dinner. The sun was already set when Naruto and his team left the restaurant they'd booked for their group.

"Do you want to meet up for our usual activities?" Ino asked.

"I just don't feel like it tonight." Sasuke replied.

They said their farewells and Sasuke turned to leave bumping into a man who had been walking behind him. The man apologized before walking away. Sasuke, however, appeared startled at the collision and stared at the man's back until he was out of sight.

"Someone you know?" Naruto asked curious as to his reaction.

"No, but I think I'd like to meet up tonight after all." he answered.

******

"So what made you change your mind so suddenly?" Naruto asked Sasuke after they'd arrived at his house.

"This," Sasuke said holding out a piece of paper, "that man I bumped into handed it to me."

Sasuke opened it up and read it silently, Naruto and Ino waiting impatiently. "So you going to tell us what it says?" Naruto asked.

"More than I'd hoped for." Sasuke replied, looking pleased with himself. "There was a gardener who briefly worked in the Uchiha district shortly before the massacre."

Pausing, as if for dramatic effect, he then continued. "It turns out, however, that this supposed gardener was actually a member of ANBU."

Ino gasped next him and Naruto understood her reaction being quite surprised himself. This wasn't just a little lead, this could be the key to everything.

"He's not the sort of person a spy would want to question, so our friends are letting us take it from here." Sasuke informed them.

"We still have to be careful." Ino advised. "For all we know this guy could go running to the Sandaime the instant we ask him the wrong question."

"That's why I'll be going alone." Sasuke told them resolutely. Squashing their protests he continued. "There's no need to risk more than one of us. The letter states this man still keeps his cover as an ordinary citizen. I can just bump into him and claim I remember him from the days he worked at the clan complex. It'll give me a chance to feel him out before deciding to ask anything that might raise suspicions."

"So we're just supposed to sit around and do nothing while you handle everything?" Naruto asked, annoyed at the thought despite seeing the other boy's logic.

"You get to rescue me if I mess up." the other boy said cheerfully.

******

It had been exactly 32 minutes since Sasuke had left on his mission. Naruto knew because he had spent most of that time staring his clock tensely, waiting for something to happen. Ino hadn't been taking the wait any better, pacing around the room endlessly causing no small amount of annoyance to Naruto.

Then just a few second before the 33 minute mark, Naruto heard a knock on the door. Racing to answer it he swore to himself that, logic or not, he would kill Sasuke for making them wait here. Opening the door, he discovered it wasn't Sasuke but another of Konoha's chuunin.

"The Hokage has summoned the two of you to his office." the man said simply before departing. After he did Naruto slammed his door and turned on Ino.

"The idiot has got himself caught!" cried Naruto, panicked at the thought.

"We don't know that!" Ino replied trying to calm him. "Now we're going to see what the Hokage wants and you are going to control yourself and not give anything away."

"And what if he was captured?" Naruto asked still not convinced.

"Pretend you knew nothing about it and deal with the rest when and if it happens." Ino ordered him.

The two of them quickly made their way to the Hokage's tower and then into his office. The man was sitting at his desk and greeted them warmly enough when they entered.

"You summoned us, Hokage-sama?" Naruto asked keeping a tight reign on his emotions.

"Yes, sorry for dragging you away from whatever you were doing, but I wanted to congratulate you myself on your promotions." the Sandaime said kindly. "I apologize for not being able to attend the finals but I've heard you all performed excellently."

"Thank you, Hokage-sama." Ino said. Naruto hoped he was doing as good of a job as she was of staying cool.

"But don't think I'm going to let you slack in your training." the man said with mock severity. "I want you back here first thing tomorrow morning. Until then you're dismissed."

Relieved that was all this was, Naruto turned and made his way to the door.

"Oh, and one more thing." the Sandaime called out from behind them before he'd reached the exit.

"I recently became aware of a story regarding your father I thought you'd like to here." the Sandaime said. "You can stay for this as well, Ino."

Pausing to blow some smoke from his mouth the Hokage then began his story. "I found a report I'd somehow never seen before. It says that it was your father who stopped Uchiha Itachi before he could escape and most likely saving Sasuke's life."

Huh? Was all Naruto could think. He knew that wasn't true. He'd heard the story from Sasuke more than once. His dad was still in an Uchiha cell when Itachi had died.

"It seems young Sasuke witnessed the event as well." the Sandaime continued. "Which makes it curious as to why the boy always hated your father. But then ..." he paused consideringly, "he always was close to his older brother."

Naruto was at a loss for what this was about.

"Of course we'll search Sasuke's place," the man went on, "just as a precaution in case he harbors any ill will towards you, being the man's son, but I'm sure nothing will come of that."

"But I know that's not what happened." Naruto said, not willing to listen to this anymore.

"Does that really matter?" the Sandaime queried. "I assure you, you'll find our evidence quite convincing."

"What's this all about?" Ino demanded of him.

Standing up the Sandaime slammed his palms onto his desk. "What kind of a doddering old fool do you take me for?!" he yelled out, startling Naruto at his sudden change in demeanor. "I was Hokage of this village before your _parents_ were even born. Do you have any idea how many plots, conspiracies, and potential coups I've had directed against me?"

Taking a quick breath the man continued his tirade. "Did you honestly think three genin could take me down?"

"Actually, we're chuunin now." Naruto interrupted.

"You may want to save your wit for some other time." the Sandaime responded dryly. "Sasuke has already been taken into custody. We've also planted evidence showing he was plotting to kill you in vengeance against his brother's death. We could easily say he was killed resisting arrest."

"Then you might as well kill us as well." Ino declared angrily. "You really think we'll just let you murder Sasuke and go on as if nothing happened?"

"Calm down." the Sandaime said. "I don't plan to be unreasonable about this. If you simply swear to drop the whole thing, Sasuke will be free to go."

Looking at the two of them, the aging Hokage must have decided they were unconvinced because he continued. "I don't care if the three of you hate me. Just think about it a bit. I'm an old man, I'm not going to be around much longer. I'd retire now if I had someone I could trust to take over."

Naruto always had been a little worried the geezer would drop dead before they could do anything to him. But that just wouldn't be a satisfying end to the matter.

"I was grooming one of you three to take over for me." said the Hokage, resuming his speech. "If you don't like the way I lead then just train hard and replace me as soon as you can."

"If you would retire now, we might consider it." Ino answered sharply.

"So what will you accomplish if you do get rid of me?" the Sandaime inquired. "It's largely fear of the truly great ninja of a village that serves as a deterrent to invasion. But with the Kyuubi's assault, we practically lost an entire generation of our best ninja."

"Tell me," he went on, "who now is strong enough to take over? Who will the other nations fear? Are you willing to risk war for your misguided sense of justice?"

Naruto and Ino remained silent, not knowing how to respond to those questions.

"I'm going to do you a favor." the Sandaime said. "I'm going to give you a day to cool off, and think about your answer. I promise you that if you don't do anything rash, no harm will come to Sasuke."

******

"So that's it." said Naruto bitterly. "It's over."

"It's not over yet." Ino insisted. "We made a promise, are you going to go back on your word now?"

"I don't see what else we can do." Naruto replied hotly. "We don't even know where Sasuke is being held. And what would we do after we broke him out? Become missing-nin?"

"I'd rather be a missing-nin than work for that demon any longer." she spat out. "As for where Sasuke is, I think it's time to call in that favor you told us about."

******

When the door opened, Naruto was pleased to see that Yugao was already there with Hayate.

"Naruto?" she said surprised at who it was. "What are you doing here?"

"I've got a really big favor to ask of you and I'm hoping you'll still help when I've told you what it is." he responded.

They explained Sasuke's capture to the pair, while avoiding any talk of the Sandaime's treachery, unsure of how they felt about the man.

"I don't think this is a good idea." Hayate said dubiously.

"Let me ask you one thing." Yugao said, looking Naruto straight in the eye, "Is Sasuke actually guilty of whatever he's locked up for?"

"Not at all." Naruto replied earnestly.

"I'm in then." Yugao informed them to their relief. "It sounds fun."

"You can't be serious." Hayate said in disbelief.

"Quiet, you." Yugao said dismissively. "Not only do I know the building Sasuke is being held in, I can tell you the exact room number."

"Great!" responded a very pleased Ino. "Now we just need to break in and get him out."

"I can help you with that too." Yugao added. "I'll go to the building and take as many of the guards with me as I can convince to come to respond to a disturbance."

"Fine. Do whatever you want." Hayate declared bitterly. "Just leave me out of it.

"What are you talking about?" Yugao asked sweetly. "You're the disturbance."

"You know, I think I'm feeling pretty sick today *cough*." declared Hayate, nervously making a last ditch attempt to weasel his way out of his part in the plan. "I'm going to go back inside and lie down."

******

Yugao had really done a great job. They'd only run into one guard so far, who they'd quickly knocked out before he could raise an alarm. Now Naruto and Ino were almost to Sasuke's room, if Yugao's directions were accurate.

They needn't have worried about that as they soon came to a large room containing their third teammate, restrained to a chair.

"Feel free to take him." a voice called out. Turning towards the voice Naruto saw a man stepping out of the shadows in the dimly lit room.

"Danzo" Naruto said recognizing the one-armed man but not knowing much else about him. He eyed the man suspiciously, not moving from where he stood.

"Don't trust me?" Danzo asked "Believe me, I have no reason to stop you from taking a corpse."

Eyes flashing back to his unmoving friend, he sprinted over to him checking for a pulse. Not only was there no pulse, but the body had already cooled. Now that he was closer, he noticed details he'd missed in the poor light, such as the numerous stab wounds along the boy's arms and torso, or the pool of red liquid beneath the chair.

After his moment of shock, the boy flew into a rage, charging at Danzo. In his fury he was hardly even aware of Ino following right behind him, obviously realizing from his reaction what the state of the body was.

Their attacks proved ineffective as the older man easily grabbed Naruto's arm and hurled him into a wall before twisting around Ino and pressing a Kunai to her neck with his only hand.

"You two might want to calm down a bit." Danzo said cooly. "Your rash actions have already cost the life of one person tonight. If you continue to make poor choices we can easily add to the list."

"I'm not afraid of you!" Ino yelled struggling in his grip. "Don't worry about me Naruto, just kill him!"

"I wasn't referring to you two." the man replied mockingly. "You're actually of some use to us. But you may want to consider the well being of all your friends and family members."

Ino gasped at that and stopped struggling, even in the poor lighting Naruto noticed her turn paler.

Naruto was thinking furiously. There had to be something they could do. He couldn't let it end like this. Couldn't just walk away from Sasuke's death and leave those responsible unpunished.

"I won't be as nice as the Sandaime. I expect your answer right now."

Naruto gritted his teeth, but seeing no other option he slumped his shoulders. "Fine. You win." he said in defeat.

"You will stay in the village, tell no one of these events, and continue to do as you're told. Do I make myself clear?" he asked.

"I get it already! I agree! Just shut up about it!" Naruto yelled, furious at his inability to do anything almost as much as at the man in front him.

"And you girl?" he asked Ino. "I agree." she said so softly it was almost a whisper.

"I knew you'd see things my way." Danzo said smirking at them as he released Ino. Then he walked off leaving them to lick their wounds.

******

"Was it really necessary to kill the boy?" the Sandaime asked Danzo.

"Don't give me that." Danzo said disgustedly. "You knew how it would end when you sent me. And it had to be done. We can control the other two, but the Uchiha was a liability who needed to be taken care. Now I refuse sit here and take that nonsense just so you can soothe your conscience."

"Watch your tone." he said angrily. "I am still Hokage of this village and I will not be spoken to like that."

"So now we've moved on to idle threats?" Danzo mocked him. "We're far beyond that now. We each know far too much of the other's secrets for one of us to turn on the other. We're in this together."

The Sandaime scowled at him but remained silent.

"I'd thought you were actually starting to make a halfway decent leader, but you're still too weak to dirty your own hands. What would you do without me?" he asked theatrically.

*******

Naruto was sick of this. Every time someone came up to him and told him how hard it must be to be betrayed by his teammate, he just wanted to tackle them and yell till he turned blue saying that's not what happened.

But he endured it, and muttered something about just not ever truly knowing people. There was no funeral. His body had just been dumped unceremoniously into a plot of land kept for dead traitors and enemy ninja. But Naruto had marked the spot and was standing there now with Ino.

It was all Naruto could do to keep things together himself, but Ino had somehow been taking it worse. He didn't think she'd eaten anything in the two days since their failed rescue mission. He knew that he had to try to put aside his own mourning for the moment and try to help Ino who needed it more than him right now.

"We'll get through this somehow." he told her. She remained silent ignoring him completely.

"You've got to take care of yourself." he said more forcefully. "Sasuke wouldn't want you to waste away like this."

"Why didn't I listen to you?" Ino said breaking down into sobs again. "You wanted to go along with the Sandaime. But I made you go with me on that accursed rescue attempt. Because of my stupidity Sasuke died."

Naruto grabbed the girl's shoulders. "Look at me." he demanded of her. When she finally looked up he continued. "No matter what we decided, Sasuke never would have agreed to go along quietly. They must have realized that. There's no reason for them to have killed him otherwise."

Glad Ino wasn't arguing with him he pressed on. "Sasuke was just as skilled and valuable as we were. If they just wanted to intimidate us, they would have killed someone else. The fact that they killed Sasuke proved they couldn't control him."

"You really think so?" Ino asked hopefully.

"Yes I do." Naruto responded, putting as much confidence as he could into his voice for Ino's sake. "They were going to kill him one way or another, but at least we tried. If you'd listened to me, I'd be the one moping here. Only I'd never know what would've happened if we had tried."

"Thank you Naruto." Ino said gratefully. "I just wish there was something we could do."

"Well," Naruto said thoughtfully, "we could make the old geezer's life as stressful as possible. He's liable to fall over dead from a heart attack at any time."

"You're certainly the best person for that job." Ino quipped halfheartedly. But at least it looked like she'd make it through this.

******

As he was leaving, Naruto saw Shikamaru standing near the entrance of the graveyard watching him.

"I don't buy it." he told Naruto.

"Don't buy what?" Naruto asked.

"The story with Sasuke." Shikamaru replied. "Something's rotten about this whole thing."

"I'm sorry." Naruto responded, doing his best to sound convincing. "But I'm afraid it happened just like they said."

"Yeah, I figured it would be something like that." Shikamaru said, nonetheless looking frustrated by his response. "You don't have to tell me anything but I just wanted to let you know I'll get to the bottom of this."

"There's nothing to get to the bottom of." Naruto insisted not wanting to drag his friend into this.

"Sure there isn't." he said sarcastically. "I appreciate the concern, but I'm going to go about this a bit more carefully than I assume you three did. It may take years, and I'm not going to ever speak to you of this again, but I just wanted you to know."

Naruto didn't know what to say to his friend.

The other boy wasn't finished. "Tell Ino about this too when you're sure no one can overhear. But never talk about it again after that. I don't want either of you doing anything about this. I promise you that I'll take care of it."

Then Shikamaru left. Naruto wasn't sure if he really planned to do anything, or simply said it to convince Naruto not try any other stupid plans. But either way, it was more than Naruto deserved. His friend had given him something he'd lost. Hope.

******

**AN**

And Part 2 is finished.

Anyone who doesn't like this chapter can blame Jaycee81196 for giving me the idea of having them caught in his review. But seriously, I had this planned before I even wrote chapter 3. Although chapter 3 diverged greatly from the original plan I had when I first wrote chapter one. This left me with a name that no longer fit the story, but I think it makes for a better fic than my original idea.

There's going to be a time skip before the next chapter starts. Unless I think up some additional content I want to add, Part 3 will be pretty short. I may be able to wrap up this story with one more chapter and an epilogue.

I hesitate to ask this, as it's too close to just an empty ploy for reviews for my liking, but I honestly am stuck coming up with something. Ino and Naruto will be pretty well known around the ninja world post time skip and I want a good nickname for their duo.

The best I've been able to come up with is the Golden Pair, but any other Ranma fans out there will probably understand why I hesitate to use that particular name. So if you have any ideas, please do message me with it or stick it into a review if you'd prefer. I'll credit you with it unless asked otherwise. I won't hold the story up over this, so get it in quickly if you have a suggestion.


	7. Chapter 7

**3 years later**

Konohamaru resolutely made his way towards his destination. It was a simple C class mission to hunt down a small group of bandits. It should have been a simple mission, but somehow the bandits had gotten wind of that fact that they'd drawn a bit too much attention to themselves and run across the border.

Ebisu-sensei had declared the mission over and ordered them to return to Konoha. But Konohamaru hadn't failed a mission yet and he wasn't about to start now. So he'd snuck away from his team during the night and had been tracking the bandits since. He'd finally caught up to them in a small village in Wind Country they'd decided to make their new base of operations. That worked out well for him. Suna and Konoha were allies, so he was sure there wouldn't be any issues with him continuing clearing out a few bandits from inside their borders.

After asking around the village, he'd discovered the group could currently be found in the town's bar. Locating the building he was about to enter when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Turning around he saw a blonde girl, a few years old than himself. She looked quite attractive in her sundress but Konohamaru didn't have time for that.

"It's pretty dangerous in there right now." she warned him. "A young boy like you should stay away from that place."

"I'll be fine. I'm a ninja." Konohamaru said, proudly pointing to his headband.

"Oh. A ninja." the woman replied, obviously in awe of his greatness. "Pardon me for doubting you."

"And not just any ninja." said Konohamaru, puffing out his chest. "I'm a chuunin. I know, hard to believe someone as young as me would already be a chuunin, but I passed the very first exam after I graduated."

"Well then, I'm sure you'll be fine, ninja-san." the older girl said, heading towards the bar's entrance herself.

Konohamaru grabbed her arm, stopping her. "Hey you just said that place was too dangerous for a kid, and you're not much older than me."

"I'm sure I'll be fine with a powerful chuunin to protect me." she replied sweetly then made her way inside.

Konohamaru quickly followed her in, seeing her sit down at a table. He decided to worry about that later and deal with his mission first. Most of the men in this room certainly looked like bandits. But how could he be sure which actually were? Oh well. It looked like it was going to be the direct way.

Taking a deep breath Konohamaru let out a yell. "Hey you bandits. I've come to put a stop to you once and for all."

That seemed to do the trick, as nearly a dozen men stood up, brandishing weapons. "And how's a little brat like you going to do that?" one of them asked arrogantly.

"Like this." Konohamaru said, then raced around the room, knocking the men out one by one. None of them were any challenge, being simple untrained brigands.

"That'll teach you!" Konohamaru cried out triumphantly when he'd finished them all off.

"Shut up kid. You're really getting on my nerves." a large man called out from a table where he'd been sitting throughout the fight.

"Are you with them?" Konohamaru asked.

"I have nothing to do with those weaklings, but you're ruining the atmosphere." the man responded while standing up from the table. "I think you could use a lesson in manners."

Before Konohamaru even realized what had happened, the man was across the room and holding him in the air by the front of his shirt.

Realizing he was in a predicament, Konohamaru attempted to talk his way out of it. "You better be careful what you do, my jounin sensei Ebisu is right outside."

"Ebisu?" the man asked. "Never heard of him. If you think I care about some no name jounin you're severely underestimating me."

The jerk wasn't bluffing about his lack of concern either as he didn't hesitate at all to hurl Konohamaru at a nearby wall. Bracing for the impact, he instead found himself grabbed by someone and looked to see that he had been stopped by the girl he had been talking to before.

"Leave the kid alone." she ordered the man, setting Konohamaru down.

"And who are you to make me?" the man inquired confidently.

"Yamanaka Ino." the girl replied. Yamanaka? Wasn't that a Konoha clan? That would explain why the girl had come to his rescue, but not what she was doing here.

Her unknown adversary just rolled his head back and laughed. "You're Yamanaka Ino?" he asked incredulously. "I've heard she's young, but you might want to wait a few more years before trying to convince anyone of that, girly."

"And I suppose that boy you rescued is Namikaze Naruto?" he asked mockingly before going into another bout of laughter.

"No. I am." said a new voice right before its owner sent the large man flying with a kick. He quickly gained control of his flight and landed feet first against the wall, bouncing lightly off it back to the floor.

"That was actually wasn't half bad." the man said smirking. "Perhaps you two really are the Golden Pair."

"I keep telling everyone, we're not the Golden Pair." the boy who'd declared himself as Naruto said. "That sounds stupid. Why can't they call us the Twin Dragons of Konoha like I keep asking?"

"Three reasons Naruto." his partner told him. "One, you can't pick your own nickname. Two, that sounds just as stupid as the Golden Pair. And three, what do dragons have to do with either of us?"

"If you two are finished, I'd like to get back to killing you." the foreign ninja said in a bored tone.

The two older Konoha ninja turned back towards the man and started running towards him. Despite his size, the arm was little more than blur to Konohamaru as he attempted to swat at the attacking ninja. It wasn't fast enough though. His eyes hadn't even been able to follow the action, but somehow both the smaller ninja were behind him each with a kunai pointed at the man.

That was awesome! Konohamaru was going to have to look them up when he got back to the village. They were way cooler than Ebisu.

"What's a well known Iwa jounin like you doing in small Wind Country village in the middle of nowhere anyways?" Naruto asked.

"What? I can't take a vacation?" the man quipped.

Naruto then took his kunai and drew a shallow scratch across the man's arm.

"Is that supposed to scare me into talking?" the Iwa-nin mocked, still not seeming the slightest bit perturbed by his situation. But Naruto just smirked in response and a few seconds later the man passed out.

"That poison should keep him under control until we get him back to Konoha." he stated. "Now let's get out of here."

"Next time listen to my advice." Ino told Konohamaru. Then the two of them vanished leaving him with the problem of how he was going to transport 11 unconscious men all the way back to Fire Country by himself.

******

"It's been more than a day and they still haven't gotten the prisoner to talk." Naruto said exasperated by that fact, "I swear our Interrogation division is incompetent."

Ino would have to agree with him, they needed to get a head interrogator who was more intimidating than Watabe-san. But this was one of their rare moments of free time and Ino didn't want to spend it talking about work.

"Would you like to get something to eat?" she asked instead.

"I'm way ahead of you." he replied energetically. "I already talked to Shikamaru's Team. They're going to meet us down at the usual yakiniku place."

"That's not what I meant." Ino snapped frustrated at his reply.

"Huh?" Naruto responded with a confused look on his face. "You're not mad at any of them or something are you? I thought you and Sakura were getting along fine now."

"It's not that, it's just ..." Ino started. "Oh forget it. That's fine. Let's just go."

Boys. They just didn't get it. Even now he was following along behind her cheerfully, oblivious to her still simmering anger.

They were walking along towards the yakiniku place when Naruto suddenly grabbed her shoulder and ushered her into a door they were passing by. Ino tried to protest knowing this wasn't the right place then looked up to see where they were. She was shocked to see they were in one of the fanciest restaurants in Konoha.

"What?" Ino asked dumbly stunned at their location. "We can't eat here. I'm not dressed for a place like this, and you need a reservation to even get in."

"You look fine." he assured her. "And I have reservations. It's under Namikaze." he said directing the last part to the host who briefly confirmed it then directed them towards an empty table.

After being seated, Ino finally regained her wits. "What's the occasion? I'd think it was my birthday but that can't be, seeing as you've never once remembered it."

"Can't I just buy you dinner because I feel like it?" Naruto asked.

Ino decided to leave it at that and started looking through the menu.

"Ino, there's something I need to tell you." Naruto said, suddenly sounding very serious.

Ino's heart skipped a beat. It all fit together. A fancy dinner for no obvious reason and now this? It had to be a confession.

"Go on." Ino said encouragingly then held her breath waiting for what he had to say.

"There's a chuunin behind you who looks like he wants us." he pointed. Ino spun around quickly and saw that he was right.

"What is it?" she snapped at the man angrily, not caring a bit that this wasn't his fault.

The man reflexively took a step back, but quickly composed himself and answered. "The Hokage has summoned you two. He wants you to meet him in his office immediately."

"Well, let's go see what he wants." Naruto said standing up and leaving a few bills on the table. The waiter asked them to come again, quite used to circumstances like this in a village of ninja.

Ino just added this to the very long list of reasons she had to hate Sarutobi Hiruzen.

******

They arrived to find their three old classmates from Team 8 already present. Kiba and Hinata had made Chuunin themselves, as had all of their old classmates. Shino was the only other one who made jounin. But not as quickly as Naruto and Ino had, Naruto insisted on pointing out, even if only thinking to himself.

The Sandaime acknowledged their presence then began the briefing.

"I have received some troubling news that must remain top secret." he informed them. "The prisoner you two brought in finally talked and he confirmed our fears. Suna and Iwa are planning an alliance."

"How can we be certain he's telling the truth?" Shino asked him.

"We have corroborated their planned alliance with several other sources." the Sandaime responded. "One of which being a letter I received from the Raikage before you'd even left on your last mission. In it, he claimed to have evidence of such an alliance himself. He also requested a meeting to discuss terms of a mutual protection pact, should either of our interests prove to be the target of this new alliance."

Halting his speech, he looked each of his listeners in the eye as if to impress a sense of how serious this issue was. "He sent a similar request to the Mizukage. I withheld my response pending confirmation, which we now have. However, I have been informed that the Mizukage summarily rejected any such meeting."

"This is where you come in." he said, switching over to the detailing of their mission. "The five of you are to travel to Kirigakure and meet with the Mizukage. Discover why the Mizukage refuses to meet for negotiations. Assuming it's not because Water Country is joining in the Wind Earth Alliance, attempt to convince her to attend the meeting. Should she accept, Naruto and Ino are to accompany her to the negotiations to act as my guards."

"I assume we will be remaining behind as hostages?" Shino asked unemotionally.

"What?! Why would we be hostages?" Kiba blurted out before the Hokage could respond.

Shino immediately answered his teammate in a calm practiced manner of one used to the need to explain his reasoning. "Whether or not Water Country is already allied against us, the most likely reason the Mizukage would refuse to attend our negotiations was if she feared a trap. Hostages will most likely be necessary to allay her concerns."

"Furthermore," Shino continued, "all three of us are from prominent Konoha clans and would be considered valuable hostages."

"Shino has explained the situation well enough." the Sandaime declared then handed Naruto a small folder. "The location, date, and details of the meeting are written here. Now leave immediately and travel as quickly as you can. Dismissed."

******

The Mizukage looked over the five Konoha-nin that had just been led into her audience chamber. She was somewhat surprised to see the Golden Pair among their numbers. She hadn't expected such prominent ninja to be sent as simple messengers. She wasn't worried, certain that she and her guards could easily handle all of the foreign ninja if they tried anything here, especially with Ao and Chojuro present.

It was, however, still a troublesome occurrence. These were ninja who could cause a great deal of mischief if not kept under close watch. The number of people she had available skilled enough to keep them in line was much smaller than she was happy with as well. She hated to have to waste those few she had with simple guard duty.

"Ah, I know her." Chojuro declared suddenly. "She's the girl who defeated me in the finals of my Chuunin exam."

"Hey now." Ao said back to the boy. "A man shouldn't admit to something like that so easily."

A man shouldn't admit to that? Shouldn't admit to losing to a girl? As if that was some huge shame? "Ao. Shut up or I'll kill you." she told him coldly, still seething at his remarks.

"Mizukage-sama." interrupted one of the Konoha-nin, an Aburame by the looks of him. "We have come to inquire as to why you declined to attend the negotiations being held for the sake of our countries' mutual defense."

Right to the point. She liked that. She supposed she should get down to business as well. "It's quite simple really. I don't trust you, you don't trust me. If I went to that meeting, someone would probably end up dead."

"Perhaps we could address our end of that issue." the Aburame boy offered, apparently continuing his role of the group's spokesperson. "We are willing to offer the three of us up as hostages for the duration of the meeting."

The Mizukage looked over the three the boy had just indicated. The Aburame himself, an Inuzuka boy, and some Hyuuga girl. However, a closer look at the Hyuuga girl brought a surprising detail to her attention. There was no cursed seal on the girl's forehead. That was a main branch Hyuuga.

This was certainly unexpected. She knew the hostage offer was coming, but to offer up all three of them so quickly, and to even put in a main branch Hyuuga, giving their village access to the byakugan? That was much more than she'd anticipated.

This had her intrigued. Perhaps there was more to this supposed meeting than she'd originally thought. At the very least it'd be a nice break from paperwork. Of course there was still the unspoken demand that she give them some reason to trust her.

"I'll admit you've piqued my interest." the Mizukage said. "So how's this for a reason to trust me? I'll go with you, and I won't even ask where we're going. I can hardly plan a trap if I'm simply following you to an unknown destination can I?"

"Mizukage-sama!" one of her guards objected. "That's far too reckless!"

"Don't try to talk me out of it. I've already made up my mind." she responded, looking forward to seeing some action again. She may have been wrong about what was going on, but she was still under no delusions this would be a simple talk.

******

Naruto and Ino were leading the Mizukage towards the location picked for the negotiations. Also accompanying them were Chojuro and a ninja named Ao. The latter was a middle aged man with an eyepatch over one eye.

The Mizukage herself was a bit hard to get used to. He was so used to the decrepit old Sandaime, that he was having difficulty thinking of this young woman who didn't even look to be thirty as his fellow Kage. He supposed his father had been really young too when he was Hokage, but the academic knowledge of that didn't help any.

"What made you so worried, at first, about this being a trap?" Naruto asked trying to make some conversation.

"At first?" the Mizukage answered. "I still believe it to be a trap. I know for a fact that Wind Country and Earth Country are making no moves towards an alliance."

Her response seemed as unexpected to her companions as it was to Naruto. "What?" Ao asked his leader. "If you know it's a trap, why are we still going?"

"I know it's a trap." she responded. "But I'm no longer certain we're the targets. Whatever is going on, I think it's a pretty complicated situation. I get the feeling this meeting is going to be something I'd regret not being there to see for myself if I didn't go."

That certainly gave Naruto something to think on. Ino, however, beat Naruto to an important fact he wanted to kick himself for not realizing sooner. "What happens to our hostages if does turn out to be a trap?"

"Oh, worrying about that are you?" Ao asked slyly. "So you are planning a trap after all, huh?"

"It's not that!" Naruto insisted. "But it's just, well ... we don't know of any plot, but I wouldn't exactly put something like that past our current Hokage."

"I actually believe you." the Mizukage said, giving Naruto hope that perhaps their friends might survive any potential plot from the Sandaime.

"I'll still have to kill them." she added, dashing Naruto's short-lived hopes. "I'd be seen as weak otherwise."

"That's not fair!" Naruto said stubbornly.

"Yeah!" Ino agreed. "They don't know anything about any plots either."

"That's not my concern." she said unsympathetically. "However, there is one way I could be convinced to spare them. Should the two of you protect me during whatever events take place, and I survive them, I'd be willing to let your friends live despite any transgressions of the Hokage."

"You want us to fight with you against our own leader?" Ino asked incredulously. "How would we even know you'd keep your word if we helped you?"

"Mizukage-sama is a great woman!" Chojuro yelled angrily. "She wouldn't lie to you."

"You're the ones who wanted to save your friends." the Mizukage added, ignoring Chojuro's outburst. "If you'd rather pick your Hokage over them, that's your prerogative."

The rest of the trip progressed in a very tense silence but they finally did arrive at the meeting place, a large open plain near the edge of a forest. The Sandaime was already there, along with the Raikage, a dark skinned man whose age seemed to fall somewhere between the other two leaders. It was expected that the Sandaime had no one with him, given Naruto and Ino were to be his guards, but Naruto had no idea why the Raikage was alone as well.

"I'm glad to see you made it." the Raikage said addressing the Mizukage. "Now that you're here I think there's something you need to see. Samui. Omoi."

Two other Kumo-nin appeared in response to their names, but it was the third figure with them that really caught Naruto's attention. A bound Danzo was being supported by the shinobi-kunoichi pair.

"My guards and I were lucky enough to stumble upon this old fool on the way here." the Raikage continued. He had quite a few friends with him too, but we've already taken care of them."

"I'm sorry Hokage-sama." Danzo apologized, "they came sooner than we'd anticipated and not from the expected direction. They caught us completely by surprise."

"It seems this whole little meeting was a plot by Konoha to kill off one or both of us." the Raikage said then chuckled to himself. "But it looks like he'll be the one with his head on a platter before this day is through."

"Hokage-sama!" Naruto cried out in shock. "What on earth is going on here?"

"Oh shut up, Naruto!" the Hokage yelled back at him. "My plan may have failed, and I may not survive today, but I'm at least going to finish you too off before I go. I can leave this world a little happier knowing Konoha will be without your stupid overbearing morals."

Naruto was still bewildered by everything that was happening but didn't have any time to ponder further, as the Sandaime charged him as soon as he'd finished speaking. Ino reacted faster than him attacking the Hokage from the side with a kick.

The Hokage blocked but it bought Naruto some time as he started go through the signs for one of his more deadly wind jutsu. One that sent a sharp spike of air at its target. Finishing it he fired at the Sandaime to have it pierce through the side of the man's chest, puncturing a lung. The old man collapsed to the ground.

Naruto was waiting for the telltale puff of smoke around the body to indicate it had been a fake. Meanwhile he was focusing his senses as intently as he could, trying to predict where the next attack would come from. There was no way the Sandaime would have been finished by something like that. But nothing came.

Slowly inching closer to the body still expecting a trap, he was shocked to discover he couldn't find anything to indicate that matters weren't just as they appeared. "Will somebody tell me what this is all about?!" Naruto called out to anyone who would listen. None of this made any sense to him.

It was the Sandaime, still lying on the ground bleeding himself out, that answered. "When I saw Danzo brought out I knew exactly what had happened. He couldn't convince me to start a war, so he'd manufacture one himself."

The man was forced to pause as he coughed up blood but somehow, through force of will Naruto suspected, continued. "I always hated that man. But somewhere along the line, I'd become more like him that I'd ever have imagined possible. There seemed no way to stop war after what he pulled. Even if I killed Danzo, they'd just think I was trying to save my own skin after getting caught."

Naruto could almost see the life fading from this old man who now looked so incredibly frail. But he still pressed on. "But then I thought of one way I could still, possibly, ruin his plans and stop the war. And in the process, just one last time, maybe I could act like the man I used to be."

There were now tears streaming from the dying man's eyes and, although Naruto couldn't fathom why, he thought he felt a hint of moisture in his own.

"Naruto I ..." the Sandaime started, but whatever else he was going to say was lost forever as he gasped a few times before going unnaturally still.

Naruto noticed two things at that moment. The first was that they'd had quite the audience from the other people assembled around. The second was that Danzo had somehow freed himself, gotten a long, thin sword of some type, and was sprinting the short distance to the Mizukage.

The woman seemed to be caught off-guard, but reacted quick enough to lean backwards and turn her intended decapitation into nothing more than a small cut on her chin. Leaping back she called out to the Raikage. "I see you were in on this too."

"What are you talking about?" the man responded. "He just escaped while I was distracted. I just underestimated him, that's all." Despite his words, the man's tone made it clear he didn't even care about fooling anyone with his statements.

"Quit fooling around and help me." Danzo yelled back to him crossly.

"I think not." the Raikage responded. "Even if I had been in on this, I would be very upset right now that things didn't go as you would've promised me. It's not even clear to me you'll have the power to commit any of Konoha's forces when the dust settles."

"You have nothing to worry about there, I assure you." Danzo told him. "But you are right, the Sandaime turned out to be an even bigger fool than I'd anticipated. A weakling like him deserves his fate."

Chojuro and Ao decided then to take action against Danzo for his assault on the Mizukage, but she called them off instead. "Wait! Let our two friends from Konoha kill him. They've proven they weren't plotting with the Hokage, but they still could be working for Danzo."

"Oh believe me, we'll be happy to take that creep out for good." Ino told the Mizukage.

"You might want to reconsider that." Danzo said smugly. "Don't think even killing me would prevent retaliation. I've got men in the woods who are under orders to deal with any treachery by either of you two. I believe you already know how that would be carried out."

Naruto saw Ino deflate at that, but wasn't about to be beaten so easily this time. "I don't even care anymore." Naruto declared. "You'll kill people if we fight you, she'll kill the hostages if we don't as long as someone is going to die I want to make sure you join them."

"What are you doing, Naruto?" Ino cried out to him.

"And seeing as you're going to be killing people anyway, Ino has no reason to stay out of this fight." Naruto said slyly. "Unless you're willing to offer to leave everyone else out of this if Ino doesn't get involved."

"Nice try," Danzo fired back, "but she still has plenty of reason to stay back, I'd just kill twice as many people if she does get involved."

"Still," Danzo added after considering something briefly, "that wasn't a halfway bad attempt. And seeing as you have no chance of actually defeating me, I'll humor you. As long as the girl stays put, I'll teach you a lesson without any repercussions beyond those you'll be receiving directly. My men can hear what's going on just fine and will act according to my directions, so we can begin any time."

"You heard him, Ino." Naruto told her, hoping she had the sense to listen. "Stay back and let me handle this."

"But Naruto ..." Ino started only to be interrupted by him.

"But nothing. I can do this."

"Don't fool yourself." Danzo taunted him. "I'm not simply going to stand here and let you kill me like that fool Hokage did."

Danzo then reached up to the bandage over his eye and pulled it off. A sharingan! And not just any sharingan that looked like it must be the mangekyo sharingan! Naruto quickly looked down at the older man's feet, having heard some stories about the mangekyo from Sasuke.

"I see you have some idea of what this can do." Danzo said proudly. "This was a present from Sasuke's dear old nii-san Itachi. Why don't I show you what it can do?"

Naruto wasn't about to give him a chance to do that. He remembered his fight against Sasuke in the Chuunin exams. He didn't plan on getting into close range against the man, especially with that sword he was holding. But sharingan or no, he only had one arm, and that meant no jutsu. If he just stayed back he'd be able to win this fight.

Still staring at Danzo's feet, he started off with the same attack he'd killed the Sandaime with. He watched it fly towards the older man, only to see it engulfed in black flames that pressed on towards him. He jumped out of the way and was glad he had as the flames seemed to be burning the very ground he'd just been standing on.

"Enjoy amaterasu?" Danzo said mockingly. "It's one of the special tricks that come with this version of the sharingan."

Naruto decided he might just risk the sword after all. Reaching into his pouch, he took out a number of his seal covered kunai and starting throwing his supply rapidly at the one-armed man. Activating hiraishin he started rapidly teleporting around Danzo doing his best to cut the man apart with one of the kunai he'd held on to.

It quickly became clear this plan wasn't working either. Between being forced to avoid looking in the man's eyes, and the predictive power of the sharingan, he hadn't managed to put a scratch on the other man. He'd even collected a few of those scratches himself in the process. Thankfully, Danzo didn't seem inclined to actually do more than that to him. Naruto was afraid if he'd wanted to, Danzo could have killed him ten times over already.

"Do you want to hear a secret?" Danzo asked him suddenly after blocking one of his blows. "Your father never left you any letter to be delivered to you upon his death. That was from me."

Naruto stumbled at that and Danzo took the opportunity to pat him lightly in the neck with the dull edge of his sword mocking him further with how easily he could have just killed him.

"The Sandaime wouldn't let me kill Sasuke." Danzo continued "The Uchiha clan had always been trouble. Even if Sasuke would never find out the truth, he was still too great a risk to keep alive. So I found a way to convince the old fool that the boy was an immediate threat."

Naruto was now beyond furious. Danzo had not only killed Sasuke, but had manipulated the circumstance behind his death right from the start? He wanted to kill the man. More than he'd ever wanted anything in his life. He attacked the man with a renewed vigor.

It didn't help. The man continued to block everything with ease and calmly went on with his with his conversation at the same time. "I was going to plant a false lead myself when I was ready. So I was quite surprised when you found your way to a real one. How does it feel to know that because of that you brought about your friend's death months earlier than was necessary?"

He heard Ino scream with rage and start to rush Danzo herself, apparently unable to hold herself back any longer.

"Ino! Stop!" he yelled. He was afraid they wouldn't but his words had gotten through to her and she halted a few feet from where she started.

"I promise you I'll win this fight. So just let me do this." he urged her. She didn't say anything but hadn't moved again. For both their sakes he hoped she would be reasonable about this. He also hoped he could actually keep his promise.

He just needed to be unpredictable. What could he do that the man would never see coming even with his sharingan? Suddenly, inspiration hit. He resumed teleporting around the man, waiting for a certain condition. Then he saw it, Danzo was starting to move his sword in an attack, and Naruto had a kunai in just the right position.

He did one thing he hoped Danzo would never expect and teleported towards the incoming attack so he was now directly in front of it. He felt the sharp blade pierce through his left shoulder but ignored it and continued pushing forward while reaching out with his own attack.

He heard a scream of mixed surprise and pain come from his opponent and risked looking up to see that his attack had been successful. He had slashed across the man's sharingan destroying the eye. He continued his downward slash the entire time, cutting across the man's chest. Then with an extra push of strength he cut a deep gouge into Danzo's thigh that went all the way to the bone.

Danzo somehow found the strength to leap away, leaving his sword behind. To Naruto's frustration, another Konoho ninja appeared next to the treacherous man, lifted him, and carried him off into the woods.

Naruto attempted to give chase, but fell to his knees a moment later, weakened by his injuries. It wasn't fair! He couldn't get away after all that! He just couldn't.

******

Danzo continued to make his way towards Konoha, fuming all the way. He'd already had his wounds bandaged, and had taken a soldier pill that was designed to help him produce blood faster to deal with all of it he'd already lost. He now was able to make his way from tree to tree with his uninjured leg, using his Root agent for support rather than having to be carried by the man.

He didn't care what he'd promised. Danzo would make the boy suffer for what he'd done. There would be blood to pay for all this. He could recover from today's events. His plan may have ended in failure, but the Hokage seat was now open for him. Even the loss of the eye was no huge deal. Itachi had two of them after all. The other was still being preserved in case something like this occurred.

It'd be an extra blow to the boy's pride to see that nothing he'd accomplished had done any real damage to Danzo. He'd see to it that neither of those two ever considered going against him again, of that he was certain.

Approaching the gates of Konoha, he saw a number of ANBU members waiting around there. What could this be about? He and his subordinate made their way to the gathering to try to learn more.

"What's going on here?" he demanded to know.

All of them started spreading out around the pair. "Danzo, you're under arrest for selling Konoha secrets to Iwagakure." the leader of the group informed him.

"What is this nonsense?" Danzo responded irately. "I don't know where you got your information from, but there isn't a shred of truth to it."

"Save it for your trial." the man responded. "Now are you going to come quietly or do we have to use force?"

Danzo didn't know what fool was trying to make a move against him, but such a simple plan wouldn't work. He'd just go along peacefully for now, and he'd have his name cleared before the day was over.

But his arm had plans of its own, reaching behind him to unsheathe his sword, his arm swung it at one of his captors against Danzo's will. The root member with him followed its lead and began to use force as well.

"They're resisting!" a voice cried out.

Danzo tried to protest, offering his surrender, but before he could even get the words out of his mouth something pierced through his back and everything went dark.

Just inside the gate, a figure stood with his back against the wall, his shadow returning to its usual shape.

******

"Naruto!" Ino cried out seeing the sword pierce his shoulder. After Danzo retreated she rushed up to her teammate and removed the sword as carefully as she could. She laid him out on the ground and began bandaging his wounds.

"Hang in there." she told him, finishing up with his shoulder and moving on to his less serious wounds.

"Ino, I'm not going to make it." Naruto said weakly freezing the blood in her veins with his words.

"No! Don't give up!" she insisted frantically, her panic clearly showing in her voice. "You can't leave me too! I can't be the only one left!"

"It's just a shoulder wound." Naruto said suddenly much more energetic, "and I didn't lose that much blood. What are you getting so worked up about? I seem to recall you having something against this shoulder anyways."

That ... that ... that jerk! How could he joke about something like this. Not able to control herself anymore she burst into tears. "I hate you. I hate you. I hate you. I hate you." she sobbed over the wounded boy.

Naruto reached up and wiped a tear from her eye, but whatever moment they were having had to be cut short as the Mizukage approached.

"I will release your friends unharmed." she said. "Just promise me you won't let Danzo become the next Hokage."

"I would die before I let that happen." Naruto said resolutely.

"I think you made that quite clear just now." she said smiling at him. "You certainly kept this day from being boring. But we must be going now."

"We'll be taking our leave as well." the Raikage added. "I for one am shocked that such treachery took place here."

With that both foreign groups of ninja departed. Now they just needed to make their way back to Konoha and hope they could find someway to deal with whatever new mischief Danzo was causing.

******

**AN**

Part 3 is finished and only the epilogue remains. And look, I can finish conclude a story section without killing off one of the protagonists! I hope I was able to keep people on their toes throughout this story. It was a lot more ambitious than my last one, and I think it came out better than I anticipated.

I've still got a lot of things to work on, but I'm satisfied with how this story overall. I enjoyed writing it immensely.

I'll try to get the epilogue out quickly. But that's one chapter, at least, you don't need to worry about any plot twists in.

Thanks for reading.


	8. Epilogue

"You couldn't have just waited like I'd asked, could you?" Shikamaru asked Naruto. He and Ino had just been informed by Shikamaru of the details relating to Danzo's death upon his return to Konoha.

"I had to take a huge risk playing my hand before I was fully prepared." he added wearily.

"Maybe if you could have finished a little sooner." Ino replied sharply. "Three years is a bit excessive you know. When did you finally get around to working on it? Last week?"

"Well excuse me for being careful." his friend answered dryly. "I didn't exactly want to end up like Sasuke."

"How dare you!" Ino shrieked at him.

"You have no tact." Naruto said exasperated with his friend. He seemed to be almost trying to work Ino into a frenzy and from the look of his blonde teammate Shikamaru was well on his way to succeeding. He decided to change the subject before things got too heated. "As much as I hated him, I can still hardly believe Danzo was selling out Konoha to Iwa."

"That's because he wasn't." Shikamaru informed him. "That man is an expert at covering up his tracks. It's not exactly safe to go sniffing after them either. I decided it would be easier to just make up evidence against him that he'd be less prepared for. He's guilty of so much it hardly matters if he was punished for something he didn't do."

"We really do appreciate everything you've done for us over the years." Naruto told him. Ino just huffed at being included, obviously not quite ready to forgive the lazy boy for his earlier comments. "I just wish there was something we could do for you."

"How about you just give me a nice long vacation?" Shikamaru said wistfully.

"Huh?" Naruto replied intelligently.

"We do need a new Hokage." he explained. "You remember killing our last one, right? Well word is that you two are the top prospects to take over. Just send me some nice easy work if you get the job."

"I'll do that." Naruto said smiling at his friend. Then leaning closer he whispered in his ear. "But you may want to pull some strings to see that things go my way. If Ino gets the job she's liable to promote you to jounin and stick you with the rowdiest genin team she can find."

"How troublesome." Shikamaru muttered in response.

******

"Well, I finally made the Sandaime pay for everything he did." Naruto said as he stood by Sasuke's grave. "I just didn't expect to feel so hollow about it."

"He just had to go in die in such a noble way." he said in frustration. "I know that one good deed doesn't redeem him, and he deserved what he got, but for some reason I can't stop feeling conflicted. Almost guilty about the whole thing. I swear the geezer did it to just to annoy me."

"Danzo's death was much more satisfying." he declared shifting the conversation to a less painful topic. "I don't think there's anyone who will miss him. My only regret is that I wasn't able to finish the job myself."

"Now that it's all over, I promise we'll clear your name." Naruto conveyed to his old friend. "We'll make sure you get a proper gravestone and everything. Then we'll work to make Konoha become a place where nothing like what happened to you and your clan will ever happen again. A Konoha that you would've been proud to live in."

"I just wish we could have done it right the first time so you'd be around to see it yourself." Naruto said morosely. "If only we'd asked Shikamaru for help back them maybe ..."

"That's enough, Naruto." Ino interrupted him. "We agreed not to go into what ifs anymore."

"Thanks, Ino." Naruto replied, grateful she'd pulled him out of that depressing line of thought before he mired himself too deeply into it. "I think I'm done here."

The two slowly walked their way out of the graveyard. "So, Hokage huh?" Naruto mused out loud, trying to get his mind back onto more cheerful topics. "I think I'll like having that job."

"Oh?" Ino asked playfully. "What makes you think you'll get it? Shikamaru said the two of us were the top prospects. Konoha hasn't had a female Hokage yet and I think we're about due."

"You?" Naruto asked, pretending as if the very notion was absurd.

"You wouldn't want the job anyway." he then added dismissively.

"And what makes you say that?" Ino inquired.

"Well, do you even have any shoes that would go with the robes?" he quipped.

"You jerk." she responded, hitting him in the arm a little harder than Naruto would have considered to be in a good humor.

She then stopped walking for a moment considering something. "You know," she said thoughtfully, "I think I would need to go shoe shopping."

******

**AN**

That's it. The stories over. Yeah, I know people have mentioned it, and I do tend to rush the plot a bit. The story probably should have been at least twice as long as it was if properly written. I suppose I should probably have taken my time a bit more with it and done it right. I know fast updates are great, but I don't think too many people would have minded if it had taken me a month instead of two weeks to write and were a better story for it.

On a positive note I do finish my stories! Two for two on that front. I'll do my best to make sure I never abandon a story early or go on too long of a hiatus. I've been reading fanfiction for more than ten years and I understand the pain of being on the receiving end of that quite well.

I ended up very fond of this story, so some day I may go back and write an expanded version of it, but I'd rather work on other stories first. Here's a brief preview of the likely topic of my next full story ( I have a couple of one shot ideas I may write up for fun first.)

Itachi chooses to side with his clan. Danzo aids the Uchihas and together with root they succeed in overthrowing the Sandaime and taking control of the village installing Fugaku as the new Hokage.

Last chance to review the story. If you have any comments, criticism, or advice, I'll try to keep in mind when I start up my next project. I likely won't be doing any writing for at least a week or two though. I haven't even been reading fanfiction lately, spending all the time I would have spent on that writing instead. Need to take a break and just read some as well.

Thanks for reading.


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